🔢WEB · Numbers 9:14
What does Numbers 9:14 mean?
"“‘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.’”"
— Numbers 9:14 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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.
Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, then after that the children of Israel traveled; and in the place where the cloud remained, there the children of Israel encamped.
Explanation
Numbers 9:14 addresses a practical question that arose as Israel prepared to keep the Passover in the wilderness: what happens when a non-Israelite living among the people wants to participate in this sacred observance? The verse answers plainly — such a person may keep the Passover to Yahweh, but he must follow it exactly as prescribed, according to the same statute and ordinance given to native-born Israelites. There is no separate, easier, or different version of the ritual for outsiders; the requirements are identical for everyone who takes part.
This verse comes from the book of Numbers, traditionally attributed to Moses, written during Israel's journey through the wilderness after the exodus from Egypt. The immediate context is the second Passover celebration, one year after the first Passover in Egypt (Numbers 9:1-14). Moses had just given instructions for how Israelites who were ceremonially unclean or away on a journey could observe Passover at a later date (verses 9-13). Verse 14 extends the discussion to foreigners, or "sojourners," who were non-Israelites living within the Israelite community, often having attached themselves to the nation for various reasons, including those who had left Egypt alongside them.
Theologically, this verse reveals something significant about the nature of the covenant community. Passover was the defining act of Israel's redemption from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12), and it might be assumed that only those born into Israel by blood could rightly commemorate it. Yet God opens participation to foreigners who desire to keep it, provided they submit to the same law
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