🔢WEB · Numbers 9:8
What does Numbers 9:8 mean?
"Moses answered them, “Wait, that I may hear what Yahweh will command concerning you.”"
— Numbers 9:8 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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.”
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“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.
Explanation
Numbers 9:8 records a brief but instructive moment in Israel's wilderness journey. Some men had become ceremonially unclean because they had touched a dead body, and this uncleanness prevented them from participating in the Passover at its appointed time. They came to Moses and Aaron with their dilemma, and rather than issuing an immediate ruling of his own, Moses tells them to wait so he can inquire of Yahweh and learn what God commands concerning their situation. The verse itself is simply Moses' response to their question, but it captures something significant about how leadership and revelation were meant to function in Israel.
The context is found in Numbers chapter 9, shortly after Israel had left Egypt and was preparing to keep the Passover for the second time, now in the wilderness at Sinai. Moses had been given detailed instructions for the Passover, but this particular circumstance—men rendered unclean through contact with a corpse—had not been explicitly addressed. Rather than assuming he knew the answer or applying human reasoning to fill the gap, Moses paused to seek direct guidance from God. The Lord's answer follows in the subsequent verses, establishing a "second Passover" one month later for anyone who was unclean or on a journey at the original time, ensuring that no faithful Israelite would be permanently
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