Numbers 9:1-13 ▼

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, saying,

2 “The sons of Israel are to keep the Passover at its appointed time.

3 On the fourteenth day of this month at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time; according to all its statutes and ordinances you shall keep it.”

4 So Moses told the Israelites to observe the Passover.

5 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 But there were certain men who were [ceremonially] unclean because of [touching] the dead body of a man, so they could not observe the Passover on that day; so they came before Moses and Aaron that same day.

7 Those men said to Moses, “We are [ceremonially] unclean because of [touching] a dead body. Why are we being restrained from presenting the LORD’S offering at its appointed time among the Israelites?”

8 Therefore, Moses said to them, “Wait, and I will listen to what the LORD will command concerning you.”

9 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

10 “Say to the Israelites, ‘If any one of you or of your descendants becomes [ceremonially] unclean because of [touching] a dead body or is on a distant journey, he may, however, observe the Passover to the LORD.

11 On the fourteenth day of the second month [thirty days later] at twilight, they shall observe it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

12 They shall leave none of it until morning nor break any of its bones; in accordance with all the statutes of the Passover they shall observe it.

13 But the man who is [ceremonially] clean and is not on a journey, and yet does not observe the Passover, that person shall be cut off from among his people [excluding him from the atonement made for them] because he did not bring the LORD’S offering at its appointed time; that man will bear [the penalty of] his sin.