Numbers 9
PATfheir nation. For it. was not their fault that they were deprived of this honour; especially considering that so smalla country asJudea could not contain such a populous nation,.but sent out colonies into many places. -As for those who were only fifteen miles from Jerusalem, they might easily have come to the feast, if not on the fourteenth day, yet the day before; and if this distance had been a good reason to excuse their absence, most of the nation might have stayed away without any danger. Yet he shall keep the Passover unto the Lord.’] When that uncleanness is gone, and he is returned to his own.country again.
Numbers 9:1
jhLND the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai. Or, the Lord had spoken; for lie relates now what was done a month ago; but not recorded till now, for a special reason: which was, that God having commanded them, in the month before this, to keep the Passover, some persons were unprepared for it; and thereupon a question arose, what course they should take? for they were much troubled they could not do as their brethren did: which produced anew command from God, that they should keep the Passover in this second month of the first year after they came out of Egypt. This Moses being to give an account of, as a matter of great importance, he doth it in the proper place for it, when he was relating what things were done in this month, (chap. i. 1.) and deferred the mention of. keeping the Passover in the first jnonth, till he could spfeak of them both together. In the first month of the second year, after they were come out of the land of Egypt.] In.which month they were commanded to keep the Passover, in memory of their wonderful deliverance from the land of Egypt.
Numbers 9:2
Let the children of Israel also keep the Passover tit his appointed season. Aaron having been lately consecrated, and having offered all sorts of sacrifices for himself and for the people; and God having declared his acceptance by fire from heaven, (Lev. viii. and ix.) God commanded the people should keep the Passover; which he had lately admonished them was one of the feasts of the Lord, (Lev. xxiii. 5.) But the first order for the observation of it, being that they should keep this service when they came to the promised land, (Exod. xii. 25.) they might thence conclude, there lay no obligation upon them tb keep it here in the wilderness: and therefore, by a special precept, they are required to keep it (when the year was come about to the time of its first observation), that the memory of so singular a benefit might not presently slip out of their mind: (see Exod. xiii. 5.)
Numbers 9:3
In the fourteenth day of this month at tven, ye sliall keep it in his appointed season. So it was ordained, Exod. xii. C. Lev. xxiii. 5. According to all the rites of it.] With unleavened bread, and bitter herbs, and the other rites mentioned Exod. xii.. And according to all the ceremonies thereof] If there be any difference between ceremonies and rites, I should think uigiiizea oy ivucrosoTi’this belongs to their eating it in haste, with their loins girt, shoes on their feet, and staves in their hands, (Exod. xii. 11.). Unto which they were not bound, when they came into the land of Canaan, when they were no longer travellers; but, it is likely, Were observed here in the wilderness, when they were in an unsettled condition.
Numbers 9:4
And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the Passover. According to all the rites and ceremonies belonging to it.
Numbers 9:5
And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even. It was not hard to procure so much flour, as would serve to make unleavened bread for that even, from some of their neighbours about the wilderness. (See chap, ivv 7.) In the wilderness of Sinai.] Where they rested almost a whole year; but after they removed from thence were so uncertain in their motions from place to place, that they did not circumcise their children, who consequently could not eat of the Passover: and therefore we never read of its being kept after this during their forty years* stay in the wilderness; nor would they have been obliged, as I said, to keep it now, without this special command. Yet their doctors say, that this is written by Moses, as a reproach to the Israelites, that they observed no Passover in the wilderness, but this one alone. Yet there are Christian writers, who deliver it as the opinion bf the Hebrews themselves, that they kept another Passover, a little before they ended their wanderings in the wilderness, viz. in the first month of the yea^ wherein Miriam died. (See Selden de Synedr. lib. ii. cap. 2.n.l.) According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did the rliildren of Israel.] They kept the Passover on the fourteenth day at even; but perhaps did not keep the feast of unleavened bread for seven days following. For here is no mention of that; and it had not been easy to provide so much bread, the want of which was supplied by manna. Ver. C. And there were certain men who were defiled by the dead body of a man.] And by a late law,, (for there is nothing about this in the original law of the Passover, Exod. xii.) no unclean person might eat of holy things, (Lev. viL 20.) That they could not keep the Passover on that day.] On the fourteenth day of the first month, at even, when the rest kept the Passover who were not defiled. And they came before Moses and before Adron on that day.] On the very day that the Passover was kept.
Numbers 9:7
And these men said unto him. Though they came before them both, whom they found sitting together; yet they applied themselves to Moses only, as the supreme judge in such singular cases; for the judges, which Were constituted by the advice of Jethro, could not resolve this hard question; and therefore they resorted to Moses, unto whose judgment all difficult causes were reserved, (Exod.xviii.22.2G. see Selden, lib. ii. deSynedriiS,cap.l. n. 3.) We are defiled by the dead body ofaman.] And therefore some may think, should have been excluded oiit of the camp, (according to what was ordaincd> chap. v. 2.) and consequently kept from coming with such questions, t>i about any other business to Moses. But it must be coti-r sidered, that when this happened, the law now mentioned 3X2 [chap. IX, was not given: for this was in the first month of the second year; and that’ law was not given till the second month, when the camps were formed. ] Wherefore are we kept back.] It was against their will that they were defiled by the dead body of a man (which perhaps they were bound to bury), and therefore they expostulate with Moses about their being denied the liberty which others had; pleading, in effect, it was not their fault that they were defiled by the dead, but rather their unhappiness; and therefore, why might they not challenge a right in this sacrifice, as well as others, seeing they had not forfeited it by any other voluntary guilt? That we may not offer an offering of the Lord.] The Passover is called the korban of the Lord, because it was to be killed, and its blood sprinkled (which shews it to be properly a sacrifice), and then eaten by God’s commandment, in a grateful remembrance of an exceeding great benefit; which shews it to be an eucharistical sacrifice. For though the first sacrifice in Egypt was to. procure deliverance to them, and to avert the evil which fell on the Egyptians by the destroying angel; yet, ever after it was a thanksgiving for deliverance then wrought, by God’s special favour to them: of which there was a compendious commemoration made in their paschal rites, (Exod. xii. In his appointed season among tlie children of Israel] •For if they did not perform all this service now, they knew it was not lawful to be done at any other time..
Numbers 9:8
And Moses said unto them,. Stand still. Or, wait here awhile. In which words Moses himself acknowledges the difficulty of the case; which he could not resolve, till he had first consulted the Divine Majesty about it. Which may teach judges not to be ashamed to confess their ignorance, and take advice on matters dubious; as the Jerusalem Targum here observes. But I.see no such good ground for the other part of his observation on this verse; that there being four difficult causes brought before Moses, in “two of them he made haste to determine; but in the other two he was slow. Those of the first sort were this, and that of the daughters of Zelophehad; (chap. xx.) these he judged presently, because they were pecuniary matters; but the other two, (viz. about him that blasphemed, Lev. xxiv. and him that gathered sticks on the sabbath-day, Numb, xv.) being capital causes, he.took longer time to judge; for he put them in ward till the mind of the Lord was known: to teach those that succeeded him in the office of judges, “to make quick dispatch in money matters, but to proceed slowly in capital causes.” But; as tins was no pecuniary cause, so it doth not appear but he took as much time to understand the mind of God in it, as in the other two about blasphemy and sabbathbreaking: for he went in to consult with him, as he did also in the case of Zelophehad’s daughters, whose cause he brought before the Lord, (chap, xxvii. 5.) I will hear tvhat the Lord will command concerning you.] These words seem to signify, that Moses might go into the holy place when he pleased to inquire of God; where God spake with him in an audible voice, (chap. vii. 89.) whensoever he desired satisfaction about any doubt. So Abarbinel, who in this forsakes the Talmudists: for they fancy, that because God called to Moses, and then spake to him out of the tabernacle, (Levit. i. 1.) he could never go into the holy place, but when he \vfts called. Which was true only at that time, when the glory of the Lord had newly filled the tabernacle; so that he durst not come into it, till he was invited: but was not a general rule to be observed in all his colloquies with the Divine Majesty (that he should wait till he had a singular call to come to him); for it is plain by this place, that lie went in to speak with him, whensoever he had occasion.
Numbers 9:9
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying. Ho brought this case before the Lord, as his manner was in such doubts, and the Lord gave him the following answer* which was to be a rule, not only.to these present inquirers, but to all posterity.
Numbers 9:10
If any man of you, or of your posterity, shall be unclean. From hence the Jews observe, that this is a law concerning particular persons only; not concerning all the people, or the major part of them. For, as the Mischnasaith in the title Pesachim, (cap. 7.) if all the people, or the greater part, or the priests, had contracted any defilement, they ought notwithstanding to keep the Passover, even in that defilement. But.if the lesser part only were defiled, then they, that were clean ought to keep it in the first month, and. they that were defiled in. the second. This they ground upon the very first words of this law, (ver. 6.) there were certain men; and upon these, if any man of you, &c. From whence, saith Maimonides, this doctrine follows, out of ancient tradition, that " there were some private persons, who were adjourned to the second Passover; but if the, generality should be defiled by the dead, they were not to be so adjourned, but to sacrifice in that uncleanness.” A great deal more to the same purpose may be seen in the forenamed Mr. Seldcn, lib’, ii. de Synedr. cap. 1. n. 3. By reason of a dead body.] This case is mentioned.instead of all other of like nature. For there was the same jcason for those who were unclean by a leprosy; for. women, in child-bed, or that were m’enstruous, or those that had a running issue, or had touched a dead carcass. And this some of them ground upon ver. 13. where, speaking of those who should keep the Passover, it is said in general, the man tltat is clean, Sec. therefore, he that was any way unclean might not keep it. Or be in a journey afar off.] Out of his own country, (for it could not be kept any where but in Judea, Deut. xvi. 2.) or at such a distance that he could not reach the tabernacle upon the day appointed. In the Mischna, indeed, this dereck rechokah, as it is in the Hebrew (a long way off), is defined to be fifteen miles from Jerusalem, or the place where the tabernacle was. Whence Maimonides saith, " If-any man on the fourteenth day.of the month Nisan, at sunrising was fifteen miles or more from Jerusalem, “this was a remote way; but if he was not so far from it, he was not comprehended in this remote way; for he might be at Jerusalem time enough in the afternoon to keep the Passover that evening; though he went but a slow pace, and that on foot. But I do not take this to be a reasonable explication. Philo hath determined the distance a great deal better, according to the interpretation I mentioned at first, lib. iii. dc Vita Mosis, where. he saith, the second Passover was permitted, roTc fiaKpae ^9 lv «™S»jjufae kwXvojjlIvoig, kc.]Tosuch ivho.icere hindered by their travels into countries a great way off, from sacrificing with the rest of
Numbers 9:11
The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it. They had.a whole month’s time given them, to dispose themselves and their affairs, so that they might be able to keep it. And eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.] Those.Jews who are called Karaites, as Mr. Selden observes in the place beforenamed, (n. 7.) expressly say, that they were not bound in the second month Passover unto more than this; to eat the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs: but they were not obliged to keep the feast of unleavened bread seven days, because they might do that in the Pass-.over of the first month: for the unclean are only prohibited to eat the Passover, but not to keep the feast of unleavened bread. If the same persons that could not keep it in the first month, happened again to be unclean in the second, they rcould not keep it in the third,. or the fourth months: for this had been to confound one feast with another; and there is t no order for it.
Numbers 9:12
They shall leave none of it till the morning, nor.break any bone of it. This belongs to the eating of the paschal lamb, (Exod. xii. 10. 46.) According to all. the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it.] See ver. 3. This is to be understood of all the jites that were proper to the offering, and to the eating of the paschal lamb; but not to the keeping of the seven days of unleavened bread.
Numbers 9:13
But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbearethto keep the Passover. In the first month, which was the time appointed for it. Even the same shall be cut off from his people.] By the’hand of the judges, or of God. Because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season.] See ver. 7. That man shall bear his sin.] The punishment of it.
Numbers 9:14
And if a stranger shall sojourn among you. He speaks of a proselyte, who had not entirely embraced their’ religion; butwas no idolater. And will keep the Passover unto the Lord.] Hath a desire to join with you in the solemnity. According to the ordinance of the Passover, and according to the manner thereof, so shall he do.] He was to be circumcised, and his whole family; or otherwise he could not be permitted to keep it. (See Exod., xii. 44.) If he was made an entire proselyte.after the Passover in the first month, and before that in the second, it.was a question’ whether he might keep it then or not Ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.], See Exod. xii. 49.,
Numbers 9:15
And on the day that. the tabernacle was reared «p. This is hero mentioned agaln\by Moses, because. he is going to speak of their removal from Sinai; which was by the direction and guidance of this cloud, which settled upon the tabernacle when.it was, first erected, (Exod. xl.34.) The cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony.] The words may be exactly rendered out of the Hebrew, the cloud covered the (mischan, or) dwelling-place of God, upon (or over) the tent of the testimony: that is, over that part, of the tabernacle where the ark was, the cloud appeared visible to all, viz. over the most holy place; where the Lo’rd appeared in a glorious cloud upon the.mercy-seat, (Lev. xvi. 2.).. 1 And at even.] When it grew dark.. There was upon the tabernacle.] Upon that part of it now mentioned. As it were the appearance of fire.] The same cloud, which was outwardly dark was bright within, and turned that light side towards, them in the night; when the cloudy part could not be seen nor be useful to them..Till the morning) Till it was day, when the cloud was more serviceable to them than the light.
Numbers 9:16
So it was alway. All the time of their continu-: ance in the wilderness. (See Exod. xiii. 21.) The cloud covered it by day.] The word by day is not in the original: it being the manner of the Hebrew language to omit a word sometime in one part of a sentence, which the other part necessarily supplies: as in Psal. Ixxxiv. 11. One day in thy courts is better than a thousand; i. e. in any other place. And Psal. xci. 7. A thousand shall fall at thy side (i. e. on thy left hand), and ten thousand at thy * right hand. And the appearance of fire by night.] As the dark side. of the cloud appeared by day over the holy place, when they.had need of no other light but that of the sun; so the bright part appeared every night, and that like fire; when the cloud, by reason of darkness, could not be seen, nor be serviceable to them for their direction. (See Exod. xl. 38.)
Numbers 9:17
And when the cloud was taken up. Or went up from off the tabernacle, which it before covered, and appeared higher in the air. From hence to the. end of the chapter, Moses gives an account of their removal from Mount Sinai, and the reason of their staying a longer or shorter time in those places to which they removed, all the time of their travels in the wilderness. TJien after that the children of Israel journeyed.) They * took down the tabernacle, when the cloud was gone up from it, (as had been directed, chap.,iv. 5, &c.) and fol- Io\yed the cloud, whichwent before them, and led them to the place where they were to rest, (Exod, xiii. 21.) And in the place where the cloud abode.] Where it stopped its motion, and stood still..There the children of Israel pitched their tents.] Set up the tabernacle, and encamped round about it.
Numbers 9:18
At, the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed. The motion of the cloud was an indication of the Divine pleasure, that they should movealso, and go towards another station: which they did, and went on as long as the cloud moved..And at the commandment of the Lord they pitched.’] Fox when the cloud stood still, that was a Divine direction. to