Numbers 9:4
in Numbers 9So Moses told the Israelites to observe the Passover,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the passover.
KJV
And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the passover.
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This verse in Numbers 9
Commentary
4 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
And Moses spake unto the children of Israel
on Numbers 9:4-5
Moses passes the command on and the people do it, and the obedience is recorded in the formula that closed Exodus, according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel. The place is named a second time as the wilderness of Sinai, so Israel keeps the feast of coming out of Egypt while still camped at the mountain. Scripture records no passover after this one until Joshua 5:10 at Gilgal, on the far side of the forty years.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the passover. The time now drawing nigh for the observation of it, it being now almost a year since their coming out of Egypt.
Thus Paul delivered to the churches what he received of the Lord concerning the gospel passover, 1 Cor. xi. Note, Magistrates must be monitors, and ministers must stir up men's minds by way of remembrance to that which is good.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
But it is narrated after that transaction in order to introduce the notice of a particular case, for which a law was provided to meet the occasion. This was the first observance of the passover since the exodus; and without a positive injunction, the Israelites were under no obligation to keep it till their settlement in the land of Canaan (Ex 12:25).
How the passage was read
On Numbers 9:1-14On Numbers 9:1-14
The make-up Passover
This passage creates something rare in the Law: a second chance at a feast. Anyone unclean or far away at Passover could keep it exactly one month later, on the 14th of the second month. Jewish tradition calls it Pesach Sheni, “Second Passover,” and it is still marked lightly today (some eat a piece of matzah on the day). Israel's kings used the provision at national scale: Hezekiah's great Passover was held in the second month on exactly this ground (2 Chronicles 30).
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: Mishnah Pesachim 9:1 (who keeps the Second Passover) · 2 Chronicles 30 (the provision used nationally)
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר | vaydaber | and he spoke | H1696 → | 1141 times |
| מֹשֶׁ֛ה | mosheh | Moses | H4872 → | 765 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| בְּנֵ֥י | benei | [the] people of | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל | yisrael | Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| לַעֲשֹׂ֥ת | laasot | to observe | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| הַפָּֽסַח׃ | hapasach | the passover | H6453 → | 49 times |
וַיְדַבֵּ֥רand he spoke
vaydaberH1696 →1141 times
מֹשֶׁ֛הMoses
moshehH4872 →765 times
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
בְּנֵ֥י[the] people of
beneiH1121 →4930 times
יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לIsrael
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
לַעֲשֹׂ֥תto observe
laasotH6213 →2628 times
הַפָּֽסַח׃the passover
hapasachH6453 →49 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Numbers
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.