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Numbers Chapter
Nine
New King James Version (NKJV)
INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 9
In
this chapter the command for keeping the passover is repeated, and it was
accordingly kept, Numbers 9:1; but
some persons being defiled and disqualified for observing it, Moses inquires of
the Lord, on their solicitation, what should be done in such a case, Numbers 9:6; when
it was ordered to be kept by such, and those on journeys, on the fourteenth day
of the second month, but not by others, who were to observe it according to its
first appointment, Numbers 9:9; and an
account is given of the appearance of the cloud by day, and fire by night, upon
the tabernacle, which directed the children of Israel when to journey, and when
to pitch their tents, Numbers 9:15.
Numbers 9:1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the Wilderness
of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the
land of Egypt, saying:
YLT
1And Jehovah speaketh unto
Moses, in the wilderness of Sinai, in the second year of their going out of the
land of Egypt, in the first month, saying,
And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai,.... While the
people of Israel were encamped there, before they took their journey from
thence:
in the first month of the second year, after they were come out of
the land of Egypt: the following order was given some time in the first month of
the second year of Israel's departure out of Egypt; the precise day is not
mentioned, it must be in the beginning of the month before the fourteenth day
of it, in which the passover is ordered to be kept, according to the first
institution of it; very probably immediately after the setting up of the
tabernacle, and the consecration of Aaron and his sons; and it must be before
the numbering of the people the fixing of their standards, the appointment of
the Levites, and the dedication of them; since the order for the numbering of
the people was on the first day of the second month, Numbers 1:1, but
the account of them was postponed to this time, in order to give a relation of
an affair which was not finished until the second month, and therefore the
whole is laid together here:
saying, as follows.
Numbers 9:2 2 “Let the children of Israel keep the Passover at its
appointed time.
YLT
2`Also, the sons of Israel
prepare the passover in its appointed season;
Let the children of Israel also keep the passover,.... Though
this ordinance was enjoined the people of Israel, and observed by them at the
time of their coming out of Egypt, and had been since repeated, Leviticus 23:5; yet
without a fresh precept, or an explanation of the former, they seemed not to be
obliged, or might not be sensible that they were obliged to keep it, until they
came into the land of Canaan, Exodus 12:25; and
therefore a new order is given them to observe it:
at his appointed season; and what that season is
is next declared.
Numbers 9:3 3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you
shall keep it at its appointed time. According to all its rites and ceremonies
you shall keep it.”
YLT
3in the fourteenth day of
this month between the evenings ye prepare it in its appointed season;
according to all its statutes, and according to all its ordinances ye prepare
it.'
In the fourteenth day of this month,.... The first month, the
month Nisan or Abib, answering to part of our March:
at even ye shall keep it, in his appointed season: between the
two evenings, Exodus 12:6; and
even if it fall on the sabbath day, as Jarchi; and this was a sabbath day,
according to the Jewish writersF25Seder Olam Rabba. c. 7. :
according to all the rites of it, and according to all the
ceremonies thereof shall ye keep it; the former of these,
according to Jarchi, respects the lamb, and the requisites of it, that it
should be without blemish, a male, and of the first year; and the latter,
according to him and others, the removal of the leaven, and the seven days of
unleavened bread, and the eating of the lamb with bitter herbs: they take in no
doubt all that were prescribed by the original law, except the sprinkling of
the blood on the doorposts, and also eating the passover in haste, with their
loins girt, and shoes on their feet, and staves in their hands; though some
think these latter might be observed at this time, when they were unsettled.
Numbers 9:4 4 So Moses told the children of Israel that they should
keep the Passover.
YLT
4And Moses speaketh unto the
sons of Israel to prepare the passover,
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.
Numbers 9:5 5 And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the
first month, at twilight, in the Wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the
Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did.
YLT
5and they prepare the
passover in the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month, between the
evenings, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that Jehovah hath
commanded Moses, so have the sons of Israel done.
And they kept the passover on the fourteenth, day of the first
month at even in the wilderness of Sinai,.... No mention is made
of keeping the feast of unleavened bread seven days, only of the passover,
which indeed was only enjoined at this time, though the feast of unleavened
bread used to follow it, and did in later times; but perhaps it would not have
been an easy matter to have got the flour to make it of, sufficient for so
large a body of people, for seven days together in the wilderness; though they
might be able to furnish themselves with what was enough for one meal from the
neighbouring countries, and especially from Midian, where Jethro, Moses's
father, lived, and which was not very far from Sinai, where the Israelites now
were:
according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did the
children of Israel; which is observed to their honour; though Jarchi gives this as a
reason why this book does not begin with this account, as the order of things
seems to require, because it was to the reproach of the Israelites, that all
the forty years they were in the wilderness they kept but this passover only;
the reason of which was, because of the omission of circumcision during that
time, through the inconveniences of travelling, and the danger of circumcision
in it, without which their children could not eat of the passover, Exodus 12:48.
Numbers 9:6 6 Now there were certain men who were defiled by a
human corpse, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day; and they
came before Moses and Aaron that day.
YLT
6And there are men who have
been defiled by the body of a man, and they have not been able to prepare the
passover on that day, and they come near before Moses, and before Aaron, on
that day,
And there were certain men who were defiled by the dead body of a
man,.... The Targum of Jonathan adds,"who died by them
suddenly,'whereby pollution was contracted, see Numbers 6:9; though
perhaps this was a whole house or family, one of which was dead, and so all
were defiled, being in the place where the dead body was, or had touched it, or
been concerned however in the burying of it, and on account of which were
unclean seven days, and so might not eat of any holy things, as the passover;
and though at the first institution there was no such law, yet since that time
there was, which obliged them, see Leviticus 7:20; and
it is saidF26Chaskuni in loc. , that the section concerning the red
heifer, and so of defilement by a dead body, was delivered on the day the
tabernacle was erected, even on the first day of the first month; and though
recorded in Numbers 19:1; yet
was given out before this; and indeed otherwise it is not easy to conceive how
these men should know that the dead body of a man was defiling:
that they could not keep the passover on that day; as others
did, the fourteenth of Nisan, it being, according to the Targum of Jonathan,
the seventh day of their defilement:
and they came before Moses, and before Aaron, on that day; on the
selfsame day the passover was kept, and they were sensible of their pollution,
which disqualified for it; and therefore it should rather seem to be the first
day of their pollution than their last; since otherwise they would doubtless
have inquired about this matter before the passover came; unless the time of
their pollution was so near out, that they thought they might eat it safely, on
which they desired advice.
Numbers 9:7 7 And those men said to him, “We became defiled by
a human corpse. Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the Lord at its appointed time among the children of Israel?”
YLT
7and those men say unto him,
`We are defiled by the body of a man; why are we withheld so as not to bring
near the offering of Jehovah in its appointed season, in the midst of the sons
of Israel?'
And those men said unto him,.... To Moses, who was
the chief magistrate, though Aaron was the high priest. Jarchi says, they were
both sitting together when the men came, and put the question to them, but it
was not proper to speak to one after another; for if Moses knew not, how should
Aaron know? says he; the more difficult matters were brought to Moses, and he
gave answers to them:
we are defiled by the dead body of a man; they had
touched it, or had been where it was, or at the funeral of it, and so were
defiled: this they knew was their case by a law before mentioned, and which
they speak of, not as a sin purposely committed by them, but as what had
unhappily befallen them, and they could not avoid; and express their concern,
that upon this account they should be deprived of the ordinance of the passover
and as this confession shows an ingenuous disposition, so what follows, a
pious, religious, and devotional frame of mind:
wherefore are we kept back, that we may not offer an offering of
the Lord in his appointed season among the children of Israel? they speak
very honourably of the ordinance of the passover, they call it "an
offering of the Lord", the passover lamb being a slain sacrifice; and this
offered to the Lord, by way of thanksgiving, for, and in commemoration of,
their wonderful deliverance out of Egypt, and done in faith of Christ the
passover, to be sacrificed for them; and it gave them much uneasiness that they
were debarred by this occasional and unavoidable uncleanness, that was upon
them, from keeping it; and what added to it was, that they could not observe it
on the day which the Lord had appointed, and when the whole body of the
children of Israel were employed in it; for it is no small pleasure to a good
man to observe every ordinance of God in the manner and at the time he directs
to, and his people in general are attending to the same; and the rather they
were urgent in their expostulations, because it is saidF1Maimon. in
Misn. Pesachim, c. 7. sect. 6. , this was the seventh and last day of their
pollution, when they should be clean at evening, and the passover was not to be
eaten until the evening, and therefore so earnestly expostulate why they should
be kept back from it.
Numbers 9:8 8 And Moses said to them, “Stand still, that I may hear
what the Lord will command concerning you.”
YLT
8And Moses saith unto them,
`Stand ye, and I hear what Jehovah hath commanded concerning you.'
And Moses said unto them, stand still,.... Where they
were; Aben Ezra says, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation:
and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you; as it was a
singular case, of which there had been no instance before, Moses would not
determine anything about it himself, but would inquire of the Lord his mind and
will concerning it; and for that purpose, very probably, went into the most
holy place, where the Lord had promised to meet him and commune with him, from
off the mercy seat, about any matter of difficulty he should inquire about, Exodus 25:22.
Numbers 9:9 9 Then the Lord spoke to
Moses, saying,
YLT
9And Jehovah speaketh unto
Moses, saying,
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... From between the
cherubim, after he had laid the case before him, and he gave him an answer:
saying; as follows.
Numbers 9:10 10 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If anyone
of you or your posterity is unclean because of a corpse, or is far away
on a journey, he may still keep the Lord’s
Passover.
YLT
10`Speak unto the sons of
Israel, saying, Though any man is unclean by a body or in a distant journey (of
you or of your generations), yet he hath prepared a passover to Jehovah;
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying,.... Not to
the men only that came to Moses for advice, but to the body of the people; for
the answer of the Lord concerned them all, and carried in it a rule to be
observed in the like case, and others mentioned, in all succeeding ages, as
long as the passover was an ordinance of God:
if any man of you; or "a man, a man", or any private
man; for, according to the Jewish writers, this law only respects private
persons, as those were who were the occasion of its being made:
or of your posterity; or "in your
generations"F2לדרתיכם
"generationibus vestris", Pagninus, Montanus; "in aetatibus
vestris", Drusius. , or "ages"; which shows that this law
respected future times, and not the present case only:
shall be unclean by reason of a dead body; see Numbers 9:6;
MaimonidesF3In Misn. ut supra, (c. 7. sect. 6.) T. Bab. Pesachim,
fol. 93. 2. says, this only respects uncleanness by a dead body, and not
uncleanness by any creeping thing; for such as were unclean by them might
sacrifice, though a private person, and eat the passover at evening with
purity, when he had been cleansed: yet he says elsewhereF4Hilchot
Corban Pesach, c. 6. sect. 1. , that such that had issues, and menstruous
women, and those that lay with them, and women in childbed, were unclean, and
were put off to the second passover; and so the Targum of Jonathan here
adds,"or that has an issue, or a leprous person:"
or be in a journey afar off; which, according to Ben
Gersom, was fifteen miles; so in the MisnahF5Pesachim, c. 9. sect.
2. Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. , and the commentators on it:
yet he shall keep the passover of the Lord; not the
first, but second, according to the directions given in Numbers 9:11.
Numbers 9:11 11 On the fourteenth day of the second month, at
twilight, they may keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter
herbs.
YLT
11in the second month, on the
fourteenth day, between the evenings they prepare it; with unleavened and
bitter things they eat it;
The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it,.... The mouth
Ijar, as the Targum of Jonathan, which answers to part of our April and part of
May; so that there was a month allowed for those that were defiled to cleanse
themselves; and for those on a journey to return home and prepare for the
passover, which was not to be totally omitted, nor deferred any longer; and it
was to be kept on the same day of the month, and at the same time of the day
the first passover was observed; still the more to keep in mind the saving of
their firstborn; and their deliverance out of Egypt at that time: an instance
of keeping such a passover we have in 2 Chronicles 30:1,
&c.
and eat it with unleavened
bread and bitter herbs; in the same manner as the first passover
was eaten, Exodus 12:8; only
no mention is made of keeping the feast of unleavened bread seven days, which
some think those were not obliged unto at this time, only to keep the feast of
the passover.
Numbers 9:12 12 They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break
one of its bones. According to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall
keep it.
YLT
12they do not leave of till
morning; and a bone they do not break in it: according to all the statute of
the passover they prepare it.
They shall leave none of it unto the morning,.... None of
the flesh of the passover lamb, what was left was to be burnt with fire, Exodus 12:10,
nor break any bone of it; the same was enjoined;
see Gill on Exodus 12:46,
according to all the ordinances of the passover they shall keep it: as when
observed in its time, excepting the feast of unleavened bread, which followed
the first passover, and those rites which were peculiar to the passover, as
kept at their first coming out of Egypt; as the sprinkling the blood of the
lamb on the doorposts, eating it in haste, &c.
Numbers 9:13 13 But the man who is clean and is not on a
journey, and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person shall be cut off
from among his people, because he did not bring the offering of the Lord at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin.
YLT
13`And the man who is clean,
and hath not been on a journey, and hath ceased to prepare the passover, even
that person hath been cut off from his people; because the offering of Jehovah
he hath not brought near, in its appointed season, that man doth bear his sin.
But the man that is clean,.... Free from any
pollution by a dead body, or the like:
and is not in a journey; in a distant country;
for if he was on a journey in his own nation, he ought to return and attend the
passover, which all the males from the several parts of the land were obliged
unto; wherefore the Vulgate Latin version of Numbers 9:10; is a
wrong one; "or in a way afar off in your nation"; for at whatsoever
distance they were in their own nation, they were bound to appear:
and forbeareth to keep the passover; the first passover in
the first month, the month Nisan, wilfully, through negligence, or not caring
to be at the expense and trouble of it, or on any pretence whatsoever: Ben
Gersom interprets it of one that will not keep neither the first nor the second
passover:
even the same soul shall be cut off from his people; either be excommunicated
from them, or cut off by death by the immediate hand of God:
because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed
season: this is the ground and reason of the resentment; it was a breach
of the divine command, which required this offering; ingratitude to God, being
a thank offering for a singular deliverance; and this aggravated by its not
being brought at the appointed time, which was the fit ti me for it:
that man shall bear his sin; be chargeable with the
guilt of it, and bear the punishment of it; he on himself, as Aben Ezra notes,
he, and he only; not his wife and family, for he being the head and master of
the family, it lay upon him to provide the passover lamb for himself and his
house.
Numbers 9:14 14 ‘And if a stranger dwells among you, and would keep
the Lord’s Passover, he must do so according to the rite of the Passover and
according to its ceremony; you shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger
and the native of the land.’”
YLT
14`And when a sojourner sojourneth
with you, then he hath prepared a passover to Jehovah, according to the statute
of the passover, and according to its ordinance, so he doth; one statute is to
you, even to a sojourner, and to a native of the land.'
And if a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the
passover unto the Lord,.... Then he must become a proselyte of righteousness, and be
circumcised, or otherwise be might not eat of the passover, Exodus 12:48; Ben
Gersom interprets this of the second passover, and of a proselyte that was not
obliged to the first, he not being then a proselyte, but became one between the
first and the second; and so Aben Ezra understands it of a second passover,
though he observes, that some say the first is meant:
according to the ordinance of the passover, and according to the
manner thereof, so shall he do; according to the several rites and
ceremonies, whether of the first or second passover, that an Israelite was
obliged to observe, the same a proselyte was to observe, and what they were has
been already taken notice of:
ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger and for him
that was born in the land: for a proselyte, and a native of Israel;
see Exodus 12:49.
Numbers 9:15 15 Now on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the
cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the Testimony; from evening until
morning it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire.
YLT
15And in the day of the
raising up of the tabernacle hath the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the
tent of the testimony; and in the evening there is on the tabernacle as an appearance
of fire till morning;
And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up,.... Which was
the first day of the first month in the second year of the people of Israel's
coming out of Egypt, Exodus 40:1,
the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the
testimony; that part of the tabernacle in which the testimony was, that is,
where the ark was, in which the law was put, called the testimony; and this was
the most holy place; and over the tent or covering of that was this cloud,
which settled upon it, as Ben Gersom thinks, after the seven days of the
consecration of Aaron and his sons; on the eighth day, when it was said unto
the people of Israel, "today will the Lord appear unto you", Leviticus 9:1;
"and the glory of the Lord shall appear unto you", Leviticus 9:6; and
here the Targum of Jonathan calls this cloud the cloud of glory, because of the
glory of God in it; of which see Exodus 40:34,
and at even there was upon the tabernacle, as it were, the
appearance of fire until the morning; the same phenomenon,
which looked like a cloud in the daytime, appeared like fire in the same place
in the nighttime, throughout the whole of it until morning light, when it was
seen as a cloud again: this was a token of the presence of God with the people
of Israel, of his protection of them, and being a guide unto them by night and
day, while in the wilderness; and was a figure of his being the same to his
church and people, in the present state of things; see Isaiah 4:5.
Numbers 9:16 16 So it was always: the cloud covered it by day,
and the appearance of fire by night.
YLT
16so it is continually; the
cloud covereth it, also the appearance of fire by night.
So it was alway,.... Night and day, as long as the people of
Israel were in the wilderness, see Exodus 13:21,
the cloud covered it by day: the phrase, "by
day", is not in the text, but is easily and necessarily supplied from Exodus 40:38; and
as it is in the Targum of Jonathan, and in the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin,
Syriac, and Arabic versions, and which the following clause requires:
and the appearance of fire by night; when as a cloud it could
not be because of the darkness of the night; as in the daytime it could not be
discerned as a body of fire or light, because of the light of the sun; but
being seen under these different forms, was serviceable both by day and night,
for the following purposes.
Numbers 9:17 17 Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the
tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place
where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents.
YLT
17And according to the going
up of the cloud from off the tent and afterwards do the sons of Israel journey;
and in the place where the cloud doth tabernacle, there do the sons of Israel
encamp;
And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle,.... Or went
up from it, higher than it was before, yet not out of sight, but hung as it
were hovering in the air over the tabernacle, but at some distance from it;
this was done by the Lord himself:
then after that the children of Israel journeyed; as soon as
they saw the cloud moving upwards, the Levites took down the tabernacle, and
each took their post assigned them in the carriage of it, and the priests blew
their trumpets mentioned in Numbers 10:2, and
the whole camp moved and marched on in their journey:
and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of
Israel pitched their tents; when it stopped and remained without any
motion, it was a signal to the children of Israel to stop also, and to set up
the tabernacle, and pitch their tents about it by their standards, and
according to the order of encampment which had been given them.
Numbers 9:18 18 At the command of the Lord the
children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle
they remained encamped.
YLT
18by the command of Jehovah
the sons of Israel journey, and by the command of Jehovah they encamp; all the
days that the cloud doth tabernacle over the tabernacle they encamp.
At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed,.... Or
"mouth of the Lord"; not that there was any command in form given, or
any audible voice heard, directing when to march; but the removal of the cloud
was interpretatively the order and command of God for them to move also:
and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched; their tents;
when the cloud stopped, they understood that as a signal to them, as a token of
the will of God that they should stop likewise; it was to them as an
authoritative command, which they obeyed:
as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle, they rested in
their tents; whether a longer or a shorter time, as is after expressed.
Numbers 9:19 19 Even when the cloud continued long, many days above
the tabernacle, the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord and did not journey.
YLT
19And in the cloud prolonging
itself over the tabernacle many days, then have the sons of Israel kept the
charge of Jehovah, and journey not,
And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days,.... Or years,
for days are sometimes put for years, and in some places the cloud tarried
several years; or however, if it stayed but a month or a year in any place, as
in Numbers 9:22,
then the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord, and
journeyed not; they not only kept watching when it would move, or set sentinels
for that purpose to observe it, but they kept the charge, order, or
commandment, which the tarrying of the cloud was a token of, and did not
attempt to proceed in their journey until they had an intimation so to do by
its motion; and all this while, likewise, the tabernacle being up, they
observed all the precepts and ordinances of the Lord in the service of it.
Numbers 9:20 20 So it was, when the cloud was above the tabernacle a
few days: according to the command of the Lord they would
remain encamped, and according to the command of the Lord they would journey.
YLT
20and so when the cloud is a
number of days over the tabernacle; by the command of Jehovah they encamp, and
by the command of Jehovah they journey.
And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the
tabernacle,.... Or "days of number", which were so few that they
might be easily numbered: the Targum of Jonathan interprets them of the seven
days of the week, as if the sense was, when the cloud rested a week on the
tabernacle:
according to the commandment of the Lord they abode in their tents; during these
few days, be they a week, or more, or less:
and according to the commandment of the Lord they journeyed; when it
removed from the tabernacle.
Numbers 9:21 21 So it was, when the cloud remained only from evening
until morning: when the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they would
journey; whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud was taken up, they
would journey.
YLT
21And so when the cloud is
from evening till morning, when the cloud hath gone up in the morning, then
they have journeyed; whether by day or by night, when the cloud hath gone up,
then they have journeyed.
And so it was when the cloud abode from even unto the
morning,.... The whole night, during which time they rested in their
beds:
and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they
journeyed;
whether it was by day or night that the cloud was taken up,
they journeyed; whether at morning or midnight; for sometimes, as Aben Ezra
observes, they travelled in the night; whensoever their sentinels gave notice
that the cloud was taken up, even though at midnight, they arose and prepared
for their journey; and by this it is evident, that the appearance by day and
night was the same body called the cloud, though beheld in a different view, in
the daytime as a cloud, in the nighttime as fire.
Numbers 9:22 22 Whether it was two days, a month, or a year
that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would
remain encamped and not journey; but when it was taken up, they would journey.
YLT
22Whether two days, or a
month, or days, in the cloud prolonging itself over the tabernacle, to
tabernacle over it, the sons of Israel encamp, and journey not; and in its
being lifted up they journey;
Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that
the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle,.... Sometimes it tarried
but half a day, sometimes a whole day, sometimes two days, at other times a
whole month, and even a year; a full year, as the Targum of Jonathan and Aben
Ezra; or a longer time, as the Vulgate Latin version, for in one place it
tarried eighteen years, as Maimonides saysF7Moreh Nevoch. par. 2. c.
50. p. 512. ; some sayF8Seder Olam Rabba, c. 8. p. 24. nineteen
years, as in Kadeshbarnea:
remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents,
and journeyed not; so that, as the same writer observes, it was not because the
children of Israel lost their way in the wilderness and wandered about, not
knowing where they were, or which way they should go; hence the Arabians call
the wilderness, the wilderness of wandering, nor that they were so long
wandering in it as forty years, but because it was the will of God that should
stay so long at one place, and so long at another, whereby their stay in it was
protracted to such a length of time, according to his sovereign will:
but when it was taken up they journeyed; though they
had continued ever so long, and their situation ever so agreeable.
Numbers 9:23 23 At the command of the Lord they
remained encamped, and at the command of the Lord they
journeyed; they kept the charge of the Lord, at the
command of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
YLT
23by the command of Jehovah
they encamp, and by the command of Jehovah they journey; the charge of Jehovah
they have kept, by the command of Jehovah in the hand of Moses.
At the commandment of the Lord they rested in their tents,.... Though
ever so disagreeable:
and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed; though the
circumstances might be such, that they could have liked a continuance; but
whether agreeable or disagreeable, they were obedient to the divine will: this,
or what is equivalent to it, is frequently observed in this paragraph, to show
that the Israelites, though they were an obstinate and perverse people, and must
in general be desirous of getting as soon as they could into the land of
promise, yet in this case, in all their stations and journeys, were submissive
and obedient to the divine will, as all good men should be with respect to
happiness; and happy are they who have God to be their guide through it, even
unto death:
they kept the charge of the Lord, at the commandment of the Lord
by the hand of Moses; observed the rest or motion of the cloud, the order and command
of God signified thereby, as it was made known unto them by the ministry and
means of Moses.
──《John Gill’s
Exposition of the Bible》