Numbers 9:3

9:3 In the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, ¹  you are to observe it at its appointed time; you must keep ²  it in accordance with all its statutes and all its customs.” ³ 

Numbers 9:11

9:11 They may observe it on the fourteenth day of the second month ⁴  at twilight; they are to eat it with bread made without yeast and with bitter herbs.

Numbers 9:15

The Leading of the Lord

9:15 ⁵ On ⁶  the day that the tabernacle was set up, ⁷  the cloud ⁸  covered the tabernacle – the tent of the testimony ⁹  – and from evening until morning there was ¹⁰  a fiery appearance ¹¹  over the tabernacle.

Numbers 9:21

9:21 And when ¹²  the cloud remained only ¹³  from evening until morning, when the cloud was taken up ¹⁴  the following morning, then they traveled on. Whether by day or by night, when the cloud was taken up they traveled.

Numbers 19:7

19:7 Then the priest must wash ¹⁵  his clothes and bathe himself ¹⁶  in water, and afterward he may come ¹⁷  into the camp, but the priest will be ceremonially unclean until evening.

Numbers 19:10

19:10 The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer must wash his clothes and be ceremonially unclean until evening. This will be a permanent ordinance both for the Israelites and the resident foreigner who lives among them.

Numbers 19:19

19:19 And the clean person must sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he must purify him, ¹⁸  and then he must wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and he will be clean in the evening.

Numbers 19:21

19:21 “‘So this will be a perpetual ordinance for them: The one who sprinkles ¹⁹  the water of purification must wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water of purification will be unclean until evening. ²⁰ 

Numbers 28:8

28:8 And the second lamb you must offer in the late afternoon; just as you offered the grain offering and drink offering in the morning, ²¹  you must offer it as an offering made by fire, as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

[9:3]  ¹ tn The literal Hebrew expression is “between the evenings” (so also in vv. 5, 11). Sunset is certainly one evening; the other may refer to the change in the middle of the afternoon to the late afternoon, or the beginning of dusk. The idea is probably just at twilight, or dusk (see R. B. Allen, TWOT 2:694).

[9:3]  ² tn The two verbs in this verse are identical; they are imperfects of instruction. The English translation has been modified for stylistic variation.

[9:3]  ³ tn The two words in this last section are standard “Torah” words. The word חֹק (khoq) is a binding statute, something engraved and monumental. The word מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) means “judgment, decision,” but with a more general idea of “custom” at its core. The verse is making it very clear that the Passover had to follow the custom and form that was legislated in Egypt.

[9:11]  ⁴ sn The delay of four weeks for such people would have permitted enough time for them to return from their journey, or to recover from any short termed defilement such as is mentioned here. Apart from this provision, the Passover was to be kept precisely at the proper time.

[9:15]  ⁷ sn This section (Num 9:15-23) recapitulates the account in Exod 40:34 but also contains some additional detail about the cloud that signaled Israel’s journeys. Here again material from the book of Exodus is used to explain more of the laws for the camp in motion.

[9:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “and/now on the day.”

[9:15]  ⁹ tn The construction uses the temporal expression with the Hiphil infinitive construct followed by the object, the tabernacle. “On the day of the setting up of the tabernacle” leaves the subject unstated, and so the entire clause may be expressed in the passive voice.

[9:15]  ¹⁰ sn The explanation and identification of this cloud has been a subject of much debate. Some commentators have concluded that it was identical with the cloud that led the Israelites away from Egypt and through the sea, but others have made a more compelling case that this is a different phenomenon (see ZPEB 4:796). A number of modern scholars see the description as a retrojection from later, perhaps Solomonic times (see G. H. Davies, IDB 3:817). Others have tried to connect it with Ugaritic terminology, but unconvincingly (see T. W. Mann, “The Pillar of Cloud in the Reed Sea Narrative,” JBL 90 [1971]: 15-30; G. E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, 32-66, 209-13; and R. Good, “Cloud Messengers?” UF 10 [1978]: 436-37).

[9:15]  ¹¹ sn The cloud apparently was centered over the tent, over the spot of the ark of the covenant in the most holy place. It thereafter spread over the whole tabernacle.

[9:15]  ¹² tn The imperfect tense in this and the next line should be classified as a customary imperfect, stressing incomplete action but in the past time – something that used to happen, or would happen.

[9:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “like the appearance of fire.”

[9:21]  ¹⁰ tn The construction is the same in the preceding verse.

[9:21]  ¹¹ tn “Only” is supplied to reflect the contrast between the two verses.

[9:21]  ¹² tn The construction in this half of the verse uses two vav (ו) consecutive clauses. The first is subordinated to the second as a temporal clause: “when…then….”

[19:7]  ¹³ tn The sequence continues with the perfect tense and vav (ו) consecutive.

[19:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “his flesh.”

[19:7]  ¹⁵ tn This is the imperfect of permission.

[19:19]  ¹⁶ tn The construction uses a simple Piel of חָטָא (khata’, “to purify”) with a pronominal suffix – “he shall purify him.” Some commentators take this to mean that after he sprinkles the unclean then he must purify himself. But that would not be the most natural way to read this form.

[19:21]  ¹⁹ tn The form has the conjunction with it: וּמַזֵּה (umazzeh). The conjunction subordinates the following as the special law. It could literally be translated “and this shall be…that the one who sprinkles.”

[19:21]  ²⁰ sn This gives the indication of the weight of the matter, for “until the evening” is the shortest period of ritual uncleanness in the Law. The problem of contamination had to be taken seriously, but this was a relatively simple matter to deal with – if one were willing to obey the Law.

[28:8]  ²² tn Heb “as the grain offering of the morning and as its drink offering.”