As we have noted many times, the divisions into chapters and verses were made by medieval monks, and they often seem odd. Numbers 9 is obviously two separate segments. I'll insert comments where I have something to note.
9 The Lord spoke to Moses in the Desert of Sinai in the first month of the second year after they came out of Egypt. He said, 2 “Have the Israelites celebrate the Passover at the appointed time. 3 Celebrate it at the appointed time, at twilight on the fourteenth day of this month, in accordance with all its rules and regulations.”
4 So Moses told the Israelites to celebrate the Passover, 5 and they did so in the Desert of Sinai at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses.
This seems unnecessary since the people have already been commanded to observe the passover and have been doing so.
6 But some of them could not celebrate the Passover on that day because they were ceremonially unclean on account of a dead body. So they came to Moses and Aaron that same day 7 and said to Moses, “We have become unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be kept from presenting the Lord’s offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?”
8 Moses answered them, “Wait until I find out what the Lord commands concerning you.”
9 Then the Lord said to Moses, 10 “Tell the Israelites: ‘When any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they are still to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, 11 but they are to do it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight.
Not sure what the "but" is all about. This is the same time as everybody else.
They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They must not leave any of it till morning or break any of its bones. When they celebrate the Passover, they must follow all the regulations. 13 But if anyone who is ceremonially clean and not on a journey fails to celebrate the Passover, they must be cut off from their people for not presenting the Lord’s offering at the appointed time. They will bear the consequences of their sin.
14 “‘A foreigner residing among you is also to celebrate the Lord’s Passover in accordance with its rules and regulations. You must have the same regulations for both the foreigner and the native-born.’”
Here is a definite continuity error. Exodus 12 says that strangers may participate in the Passover, but only if they are circumcised. And yet just a few verses earlier it says unequivocally that "no stranger shall eat thereof." I was at the apartment of some Jewish friends in Chicago on Passover and I did share the Seder with them. I am circumcised so I was good for two out of three.
15 On the day the tabernacle, the tent of the covenant law, was set up, the cloud covered it. From evening till morning the cloud above the tabernacle looked like fire. 16 That is how it continued to be; the cloud covered it, and at night it looked like fire. 17 Whenever the cloud lifted from above the tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped. 18 At the Lord’s command the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. 19 When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a long time, the Israelites obeyed the Lord’s order and did not set out. 20 Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days; at the Lord’s command they would encamp, and then at his command they would set out. 21 Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out. 22 Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out. 23 At the Lord’s command they encamped, and at the Lord’s command they set out. They obeyed the Lord’s order, in accordance with his command through Moses.
Well okay, but where are they going? They're just wandering aimlessly and pointlessly around in the desert. Just sayin'.
3 comments:
RE: "But" : they are to celebrate on the 14th day of the second month, not the first, if I am reading it correctly.
Oh yeah good catch. I guess that gives them time to get clean. I guess undertakers and gravediggers need to take the day off?
Time was definitely perceived differently by the authors and scribes of the Torah. I see that if you walked five miles a day, it would take less than three months.
Let's assume Methuselah, the oldest guy in the Tanakh, was really about 100. So we can that by 969, his purported age, and get a conversion factor of ~0.1032. Multiplying that by 40 years we get 4.128 years. Dividing the distance from Cairo to Jerusalem (432 miles) by 4.128 gives us 104 miles per year. Again, dividing that by 365.25 days give us about 0.285 miles per day.
That's a really relaxed pace. Or they got lost a lot. I've mentioned it before, but one explanation is that Moses was waiting for the attrition of the older "I-miss-the-good-ol'-days-in-eretz-Mitzraim" crowd.
Of course, the whole age thing is a problem ... because Abraham died at 175, meaning he would have been actually 175 x .1032 = 18 years old.
Time in the Tanakh just doesn't work. Unless Methuselah lived to be more like 450 of our years old.
Aaargh.
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