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And they observed the Passover[a] on the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight in the desert of Sinai; in accordance with all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so the Israelites did.

It happened that some men[b] who were ceremonially defiled[c] by the dead body of a man[d] could not keep[e] the Passover on that day, so they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day. And those men said to Moses,[f] “We are ceremonially defiled by the dead body of a man; why are we kept back from offering the Lord’s offering at its appointed time among the Israelites?”

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Footnotes

  1. Numbers 9:5 tc The LXX omits this first clause; it also omits “at twilight.”
  2. Numbers 9:6 tn In the Hebrew text the noun has no definite article, and so it signifies “some” or “certain” men.
  3. Numbers 9:6 tn The meaning, of course, is to be ceremonially unclean, and therefore disqualified from entering the sanctuary.
  4. Numbers 9:6 tn Or “a human corpse” (so NAB, NKJV). So also in v.7; cf. v. 10.
  5. Numbers 9:6 tn This clause begins with the vav (ו) conjunction and negative before the perfect tense. Here is the main verb of the sentence: They were not able to observe the Passover. The first part of the verse provides the explanation for their problem.
  6. Numbers 9:7 tn Heb “him”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.