9:1-14

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Feast of Passover

(Nu 9:1-14)

Before leaving Sinai, Israel kept the Passover in remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt. (For details of the Passover feast see notes on Ex 12:1-36.)

All Israelites were to keep the Passover, but a problem arose when some men thought they should not, because they were ceremonially unclean through handling a dead body. They asked Moses what to do and Moses asked God (Nu 9:1-8).

God’s instruction was that a second Passover feast was to be held, a month after the first, for those who missed the official feast through being either ceremonially unclean or away on a journey at the time.

But all others had to join in the regular feast, and any who broke this law were to be expelled from the camp. Even non-Israelites who lived among them were to keep the Passover, provided they were circumcised (Nu 9:9-14; cf. Ex 12:43-49).