Bible Commentaries

In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to ^a all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it.

(a) Even in all points as the Lord has instituted it.

And there were certain men, who were defiled ^b by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day:

(b) By touching a corpse, or being at the burial.

And those men said unto him, We [are] defiled by the dead body of a man: wherefore are we kept back, that we may not ^c offer an offering of the LORD in his appointed season among the children of Israel?

(c) Or, celebrate the Passover the fourteenth day of the first month.

Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or [be] in a journey afar off, yet ^d he shall keep the passover unto the LORD.

(d) And cannot come where the tabernacle is, when others keep it.

The fourteenth day of the ^e second month at even they shall keep it, [and] eat it with unleavened bread and bitter [herbs].

(e) So that the unclean and those who are not at home, have a month longer granted to them.

But the man that [is] clean, and is not in a ^f journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the LORD in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.

(f) When the Passover is celebrated.

And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, [namely], the tent of the testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the ^g appearance of fire, until the morning.

(g) Like a pillar, read (Exodus 13:21-22).

At the commandment of the ^h LORD the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the LORD they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents.

(h) Who taught them what to do by the cloud.

And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the ⁱ charge of the LORD, and journeyed not.

(i) They waited when the Lord would signify either their departure, or their abode by the cloud.

At the commandment of the LORD they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the LORD they journeyed: they kept the charge of the LORD, at the commandment of the LORD by the ^k hand of Moses.

(k) Under the charge and government of Moses.