🔢WEB · Numbers 9:13
What does Numbers 9:13 mean?
"But the man who is clean, and is not on a journey, and fails to keep the Passover, that soul shall be cut off from his people. Because he didn’t offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin."
— Numbers 9:13 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
“Say to the children of Israel, ‘If any man of you or of your generations is unclean by reason of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, he shall still keep the Passover to Yahweh.
In the second month, on the fourteenth day at evening they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break a bone of it. According to all the statute of the Passover they shall keep it.
But the man who is clean, and is not on a journey, and fails to keep the Passover, that soul shall be cut off from his people. Because he didn’t offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.
“‘If a foreigner lives among you, and desires to keep the Passover to Yahweh; according to the statute of the Passover, and according to its ordinance, so shall he do. You shall have one statute, both for the foreigner, and for him who is born in the land.’”
On the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the Tent of the Testimony: and at evening it was over the tabernacle, as it were the appearance of fire, until morning.
So it was continually. The cloud covered it, and the appearance of fire by night.
Explanation
Numbers 9:13 addresses a specific situation: what happens when someone who is ceremonially clean and not away on a journey simply neglects to observe the Passover at its appointed time. The verse states plainly that such a person is to be "cut off from his people" — a serious consequence indicating exclusion from the covenant community — because he failed to bring the offering of Yahweh at its designated season. The text is clear that this person bears the guilt of his own sin; the failure is treated as willful neglect rather than an innocent oversight.
The context of this passage is important for understanding it correctly. This instruction comes shortly after the Israelites had left Egypt, during their first year in the wilderness, as they were establishing the patterns of worship God had commanded through Moses. Just prior to this verse, in Numbers 9:6-12, a specific case arose: some men were ceremonially unclean because they had touched a dead body, and they could not celebrate the Passover on its regular date. They brought their dilemma to Moses, who inquired of God and received the answer that those legitimately prevented — by uncleanness or by being on a distant journey — should observe the Passover one month later, on the fourteenth day of the second month. Verse 13 serves as the contrast to that gracious provision: it clarifies that this accommodation was only for those with genuine, unavoidable hindrances, not for those who simply chose not to participate.
Theologically, this verse teaches that participation in God's appointed acts of remembrance and worship carries real weight and is not optional for those with no legitimate excuse. The
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