🔢WEB · Numbers 9:5
What does Numbers 9:5 mean?
"They kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did."
— Numbers 9:5 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
“Moreover let the children of Israel keep the Passover in its appointed season.
On the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you shall keep it in its appointed season—according to all its statutes, and according to all its ordinances, you shall keep it.”
Moses spoke to the children of Israel, that they should keep the Passover.
They kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did.
There were certain men, who were unclean because of the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.
Those men said to him, “We are unclean because of the dead body of a man. Why are we kept back, that we may not offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season among the children of Israel?”
Moses answered them, “Wait, that I may hear what Yahweh will command concerning you.”
Explanation
Numbers 9:5 records a simple historical fact: the Israelites observed the Passover exactly one year after the first Passover in Egypt, on the fourteenth day of the first month, in the evening, while they were still camped in the wilderness of Sinai. The verse emphasizes their obedience—they did it "according to all that Yahweh commanded Moses," meaning they followed the instructions precisely, without deviation or negotiation.
The book of Numbers was written by Moses, addressed to the generation of Israelites who had left Egypt and were now organizing themselves as a covenant people at Mount Sinai. This particular passage falls within a broader narrative (Numbers 9:1-14) where God instructs Moses to have the people keep the Passover at its appointed time, and then addresses a special case—men who were ceremonially unclean due to contact with a dead body and could not participate on the regular date. The chapter shows both the general command to observe Passover and God's provision for exceptions, revealing his concern that no faithful person be excluded from covenant worship due to circumstances beyond their control.
Theologically, this verse highlights the importance of remembrance and obedience within Israel's relationship with God. Passover commemorated the night God spared Israel's firstborn in Egypt and delivered them from slavery (Exodus 12). By keeping it at Sinai, the Israelites demonstrated that their new identity as a redeemed people was to be shaped by continual, faithful remembrance of God's saving acts. The phrase "according to all that Yahweh comman
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