Commentaria in Numeros
Chapter 9. Synopsis of the Chapter
God commands the Hebrews to celebrate the passover in Sinai, which was in order the second (for the Hebrews celebrated the first in Egypt, Exodus 12). Secondly, verse 15, the cloud is described, which was the guide of the journey and of rest.
1. And the Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai, in the second year after they came out of the land of Egypt, in the first month, saying: 2. Let the children of Israel make the Phase in its due time, 3. on the fourteenth day of this month in the evening, according to all the ceremonies and justifications thereof. 4. And Moses commanded the children of Israel that they should make the Phase. 5. And they made it in its due time, the fourteenth day of the month at evening, in mount Sinai. According to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel. 6. But behold, certain men who were unclean by the soul of a man, and could not keep the Phase on that day, coming to Moses and Aaron, 7. said to them: We are unclean by the soul of a man; why are we defrauded, that we may not offer the oblation to the Lord in its season among the children of Israel? 8. And Moses answered them: Stay, that I may consult the Lord what he will command concerning you. 9. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 10. Speak to the children of Israel: The man that shall be unclean by reason of a soul, or be on a journey afar off in your nation, let him keep the Phase to the Lord, 11. in the second month, the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, with unleavened bread and wild lettuce they shall eat it: 12. they shall not leave any thing of it until morning, nor break a bone thereof: they shall observe all the rites of the Phase. 13. But if any man be clean, and was not on a journey, and yet did not keep the Phase, that soul shall be cut off from among his people, because he offered not the sacrifice to the Lord in due season: he shall bear his sin. 14. The stranger also and the foreigner, if they be among you, shall keep the Phase to the Lord according to the ceremonies and justifications thereof. The same precept shall be with you, both for the stranger and for him that was born in the land. 15. Now on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, a cloud covered it. And from the evening there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire until morning; 16. so it was always: by day a cloud covered it, and by night the appearance of fire. 17. And when the cloud that covered the tabernacle was taken up, then the children of Israel set forward, and in the place where the cloud stood, there they encamped. 18. At the commandment of the Lord they set forward, and at his commandment they pitched the tabernacle. All the days that the cloud stood over the tabernacle, they remained in the same place: 19. and if it so happened that it continued over it a long time, the children of Israel kept the watches of the Lord, and set not forward 20. for as many days as the cloud stood over the tabernacle. At the commandment of the Lord they pitched their tents, and at his commandment they took them down. 21. If the cloud stayed from evening until morning, and immediately at break of day left the tabernacle, they set forward: and if it departed after a day and a night, they took down their tents. 22. But if it remained over the tabernacle for two days, or a month, or a longer time, the children of Israel remained in the same place, and set not forward: but as soon as it departed, they moved the camp. 23. By the word of the Lord they pitched their tents, and by his word they set forward: and they kept the watches of the Lord according to his commandment by the hand of Moses.
Verse 1. IN THE DESERT OF SINAI, IN THE SECOND YEAR AFTER THEY CAME OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, IN THE FIRST MONTH, SAYING: LET THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL MAKE THE PHASE.—Hence it is plain that again the order of history and time is not regarded here: for according to it this chapter should be placed before chapter 1; for the things narrated in chapter 1 happened in the second month, as is said there; but these were done in the first month of the same year: Moses wished to begin this book of Numbers with the numbering of the people and of the Levites, which he chiefly had in view in this book, and to add the other things afterwards, even if they had happened earlier.
God therefore published this in the first month, before the fourteenth day of the month, and commanded that on the fourteenth day they celebrate the phase, or pasch: and that to the end that the people might know that this feast and its rite were legal, and not only used once for the very departure from Egypt, but would endure always in the land of Canaan.
I say in Canaan: for in the desert after the departure from Sinai they do not appear to have celebrated the phase any more, because there they were uncertain when the camp was to be moved. Hence neither circumcision nor other ceremonial things did they observe in the desert, except those which are expressly mentioned, as here it is expressed that in the second year, in the first month, the phase was celebrated.
Note: The Hebrews in Sinai celebrated the pasch only, not Pentecost, not the feast of tabernacles, nor of trumpets, etc., because they departed from Sinai before the time of those feasts came; for after the setting up of the tabernacle, which was done on the first day of the first month of the second year after the departure from Egypt, they remained in Sinai only 50 days. For they moved the camp from Sinai on the 20th day of the second month, as is plain from chapter 10, verse 11; therefore they departed from Sinai before Pentecost: for this fell on the sixth day of the third month.
Verse 3. JUSTIFICATIONS—in Hebrew, judgments, that is the due and prescribed rite. Similar is verse 14.
Verse 5. AND THEY MADE IT (the phase) IN ITS DUE TIME—namely on the fourteenth day of the first month. In this phase they did not keep the law of unleavened bread, because in the desert they ate unleavened manna renewed daily.
Note: This phase was eaten only by those who had come out of Egypt. For those born in the desert were uncircumcised; hence it was not lawful for them to eat the phase: though neither could they by reason of age, for they were tender infants of one year.
For these things happened in the second year after the departure from Egypt.
Verse 7. WE ARE UNCLEAN BY THE SOUL OF A MAN.—“Soul” means corpse, by antiphrasis, because, namely, we have touched the corpse of a man. For such, Leviticus 22:4, are kept from all sacrifice: and consequently from the paschal lamb. In like manner lepers, those with a flow of seed, and those suffering a flow of blood, being unclean, never celebrated the pasch.
WHY ARE WE DEFRAUDED?—why are we deprived? in Hebrew, why are we forbidden and kept away from the phase?
Verses 10 and 11. THE MAN THAT SHALL BE UNCLEAN BY REASON OF A SOUL, OR BE ON A JOURNEY AFAR OFF IN YOUR NATION, LET HIM KEEP THE PHASE TO THE LORD IN THE SECOND MONTH—as if to say: He who is unclean, or journeying, remote from Judea and from Jerusalem (for in it alone was it lawful to keep the phase, as is plain from Deuteronomy 16:2) at the time of the pasch, let him celebrate his pasch in the second month. The Jews, then, who were travelling in the first, or paschal, month, ought to prepare themselves, if they could, to return home before the 14th day, on which the pasch was to be celebrated, to keep the pasch. The same judgment holds of any unclean persons, for the reason of all is equal; but if they could not do so, they ought to prepare for the second month, to keep the pasch on its fourteenth day. In like manner those who by absence or other cause cannot communicate at Easter are bound, as soon as they return or can, to communicate and celebrate their pasch.