Numbers 9:1-12 ▼

1 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:

2 The Israelites are to observe the Passover at its appointed time.

3 In the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you are to observe it at its appointed time; you must keep it in accordance with all its statutes and all its customs.|

4 So Moses instructed the Israelites to observe the Passover.

5 And they observed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight in the wilderness of Sinai; in accordance with all that the LORD had commanded Moses, so the Israelites did.

6 It happened that some men who were ceremonially defiled by the dead body of a man could not keep the Passover on that day, so they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.

7 And those men said to him, |We are ceremonially defiled by the dead body of a man; why are we kept back from offering the LORD's offering at its appointed time among the Israelites?|

8 So Moses said to them, |Remain here and I will hear what the LORD will command concerning you.|

9 The LORD spoke to Moses:

10 Tell the Israelites, 'If any of you or of your posterity become ceremonially defiled by touching a dead body, or are on a journey far away, then he may observe the Passover to the LORD.

11 They may observe it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight; they are to eat it with bread made without yeast and with bitter herbs.

12 They must not leave any of it until morning, nor break any of its bones; they must observe it in accordance with every statute of the Passover.