1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,Time keeps on sticking, sticking, sticking.
2 Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season.
3 In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it.
4 And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the passover.
5 And they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.
6 And there were certain men, who were defiled 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:
7 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 offer an offering of the LORD in his appointed season among the children of Israel?
8 And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the LORD will command concerning you.
9 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
10 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 he shall keep the passover unto the LORD.
11 The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
12 They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of the passover they shall keep it.
13 But the man that is clean, and is not in a 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.
14 And if a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the passover unto the LORD; according to the ordinance of the passover, and according to the manner thereof, so shall he do: ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.
15 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 appearance of fire, until the morning.
16 So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.
17 And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents.
18 At the commandment of the 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.
19 And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the LORD, and journeyed not.
20 And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; according to the commandment of the LORD they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the LORD they journeyed.
21 And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed.
22 Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed.
23 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 hand of Moses.
It seems like only yesterday, 45 chapters back in Exodus 40, we were told that "it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up."
After we larned us some Leviticus and landed in chapter 1 of Numbers, our calendars were synchronized on "the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt." Hmm....
And here in Numbers 9 (psst: backwards it says "turn me on, deadman"), we're still in the first fortnight of the first month of the second year in the wilderness.
But, we'll soldier on through that light-speed whiplash and see what's what here....
Another reminder to celebrate the blessed slaughter of Egyptian firstborns (i.e., Passover).
If you were defiled by the deceased (a turned-on deadman?), take note of the special Passover tips just for folks in your predicament.
The same rules apply if you're just out town. Even the Accidental Tourist didn't equate travel with being raped by a corpse. In contrast, the Sloop John B was a pleasure cruise, though shipping up to Boston and losing your leg is a pretty rough ride in its own right. But I digress....
Some who were defiled by the dead came up to Moses and said, oddly enough, "We are defiled by the dead...." Then Moses put them on hold and waited to hear God's instructions, which were forthcoming.
The travelers and dead-body touchers/touchees need to eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs with their Passover meat and finish it that night... without breaking any of its bones.
Not sure how that differs from the ordinary practice. Perhaps a simpler ritual? Are they forgiven if they don't get around to observing the holiday?
Clean men at home who don't observe Passover are excommunicated.
If you have guests from out-of-town, they participate, as well.
On that Passover day, a cloud covered the tabernacle, and that night it looked as if it were on fire? (Did they have fire marshals back then? Did anyone try to put it out?)
Anyway, no big deal, since that cloud-and-flame show was an everyday event, like fireworks at a Disney theme park. A friendly tip, Yahweh: after a while, people get a little bored with even the best FX. It's just human nature. Actually, maybe you figured that out, and that's why you stopped doing miracles before we had things like video cameras.
As we know, when the clouds clear, it's time to traipse around — to God-knows-where (and God-shows-where, via the clouds) — with the tabernacle.
3 comments:
Well, once again this chapter is an addition by one of the later priestly writers; this is the writer whose style is "a situation occurs that the laws [allegedly] don't appear to cover, they immediately ask for advice, new laws are then immediately given". Passages from this writer crops up quite a bit in the Book of Numbers, and its increadibly obvious how faked the situations are.
This passage is about the "second passover". That's "second" as in second month; the key detail is that this "passover" occurs 1 month after the normal "passover". The reminder at the start is really a crudely inserted excuse to introduce the situation so that it can give rise to the law about the second passover.
Its not important that they were "defiled" due to making "contact" with the dead; all that matters is that there was SOME reason for them to have been unable to uphold the normal "passover". Its just an excuse for the writer to introduce the law about having a "second passover".
The REAL origin of the "second passover" is basically politics. The Priesly Code was written by the Aaronids, over a period the peaked with king Hezekiah; if you skip ahead to the book of Chronicles, you'll see quite a bit about Hezekiah (Chronicles is the Aaronid version of the history of the kings).
Chronicles quite openly states that the passover ritual was never really followed prior to Hezekiah (in reality of course, it wasn't followed until then because a large chunk of it was invented by the Aaronids during Hezekiah's reign); Chronicles then goes on to say that after Hezekiah's religious reform, there weren't enough properly consecrated priests (again because "proper consecration", in reality, had only just been invented).
Due to the lack of "proper priests", much of the population missed the normal passover. That's why this law (about the "second passover") was invented - so that the passover could still be held, they would just have to wait a bit. Its a bit like regular press announcements; they agree to make announcements in January each year, but no-one turns up to the first one, so they say that there will also be announcements in February as well.
As for the cloud - notice how this description of the cloud and its behaviour contrasts with that in Exodus 13. The latter is part of the Jahwist text, but here its the Priestly Source; in the Jahwist the cloud leads the way, but here it only turns up to represent god so that even more laws can be given to them.
You might ask why these extra laws couldn't have been given upfront; the answer is that the "situation-resolution" priestly writer wouldn't have been able to add their changes in... but then, that's the same writer that's responsible for adding the bit about the cloud turning up so that they could have more laws.
And yes the timing of all this is incredibly suspect; the entire history of several hundred generations is compressed into the space of Genesis, while 1 year takes nearly 2 whole books worth of space. Really, that's because of all the accretions (which I've generally pointed out) added by the later priestly writers. Never mind, in the next chapter we'll pick up the Jahwist and Elohist writers from where we last left them (Exodus 34).
Number nine...number nine...number nine...
Dr. S.,
Two "Revolution 9" references weren't enough for you?
Well, here's another clue for you all:
Charlie Manson thought it was channeling Revelation 9.
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