1 THE Lord said 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 Let the Israelites keep the Passover at its appointed time.
3 On the fourteenth day of this month in the evening, 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 they should keep the Passover.
5 And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month in the evening in the Wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the Israelites did.
6 And there were certain men who were defiled by touching the dead body of a man, so they could not keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day.
7 Those men said to [Moses], We are defiled by touching the dead body. Why are we prevented from offering the Lord's offering at its appointed time among the Israelites?
8 And Moses said to them, Stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you.
9 And the Lord said to Moses,
10 Say to the Israelites, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of touching a dead body or is far off on a journey, still he shall keep the Passover to the Lord.
11 On the fourteenth day of the second month in the evening they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
12 They shall leave none of it until the morning nor break any bone of it; according to all the statutes for the Passover they shall keep it. [John 19:36.]
13 But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, yet does not keep the Passover, that person shall be cut off from among his people because he did not bring the Lord's offering at its appointed time; that man shall bear [the penalty of] his sin.
14 And if a stranger sojourns among you and will keep the Passover to the Lord, according to [its] statutes and its ordinances, so shall he do; you shall have one statute both for the temporary resident and for him who was born in the land.
15 And on the day that the tabernacle was erected, the cloud [of God's presence] covered the tabernacle, that is, the Tent of the Testimony; and at evening it was over the tabernacle, having the appearance of [a pillar of] fire until the morning. [Exod. 13:21.]
16 So it was constantly; the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.
17 Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, after that the Israelites journeyed; and in the place where the cloud rested, there the Israelites encamped.
18 At the Lord's command the Israelites journeyed, and at [His] command they encamped. As long as the cloud rested upon the tabernacle they remained encamped.
19 Even when the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle many days, the Israelites kept the Lord's charge and did not set out.
20 And sometimes the cloud was only a few days upon the tabernacle, but according to the command of the Lord they remained encamped, and at His command they journeyed.
21 And sometimes the cloud remained [over the tabernacle] from evening only until morning, but when the cloud was taken up, they journeyed; whether it was taken up by day or by night, they journeyed.
22 Whether it was two days or a month or a longer time that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, dwelling on it, the Israelites remained encamped; but when it was taken up, they journeyed.
23 At the command of the Lord they remained encamped, and at [His] command they journeyed; they kept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord through Moses.