Numbers 9:16-18

9:16 This is the way it used to be continually: The cloud would cover it by day, ¹  and there was a fiery appearance by night. 9:17 Whenever the cloud was taken up ²  from the tabernacle, then after that the Israelites would begin their journey; and in whatever place ³  the cloud settled, there the Israelites would make camp. 9:18 At the commandment ⁴  of the Lord the Israelites would begin their journey, and at the commandment of the Lord they would make camp; as long as ⁵  the cloud remained settled over the tabernacle they would camp.

[9:16]  ¹ tc The MT lacks the words “by day,” but a number of ancient versions have this reading (e.g., Greek, Syriac, Tg. Ps.-J., Latin Vulgate).

[9:17]  ² tn The verb in this initial temporal clause is the Niphal infinitive construct.

[9:17]  ³ tn Heb “in the place where it settled there”; the relative clause modifies the noun “place,” and the resumptive adverb completes the related idea – “which it settled there” means “where it settled.”

[9:18]  ³ tn Heb “at the mouth of” (so also in vv. 20, 23).

[9:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “all the days of – that the cloud settled over the tabernacle.” “All” is the adverbial accusative of time telling how long they camped in one spot – all. The word is then qualified by the genitive of the thing measured – “all of the days” – and this in turn is qualified by a noun clause functioning as a genitive after “days of.”