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The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 8:26
Shall minister … to keep the charge, and shall do no service. The word "charge" (Hebrew, mishmereth) seems to signify the care of the furniture and belongings of the tabernacle, while "service" means the laborious work…
Matthew Henry on Numbers 9:1-14
God gave particular orders for the keeping of this passover, and, for aught that appears, after this, they kept no passover till they came to Canaan, Jos 5:10. It early showed that the ceremonial institutions were not t…
The Law of the Passover. (b. c. 1490.)
THE LAW OF THE PASSOVER. (B. C. 1490.) Here we have, I. An order given for the solemnization of the passover, the day twelvemonth after they came out of Egypt, on the fourteenth day of the first month of the second year…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:1-5
A NEEDED REMINDER When Jehovah ordered Moses to prepare the Israelites against the visit in which he smote the firstborn, he also said the day was to be kept as a feast through all their generations by an ordinance for…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:1-14
THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW OF THE PASSOVER We learn from this narrative certain lessons which may illustrate the relation of the letter to the spirit of Divine precepts on other subjects beside the passover. I…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:1-14
EXPOSITION THE PASSOVER AT SINAI (Numbers 9:1-14).
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:1
In the first month of the second year. Before the census, and all the other events recorded in this hook, except in part the offerings of the princes (see Numbers 7:1). There was, however, an obvious reason for mentioni…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:1-14
THE PASCHAL FEAST In the keeping of the passover we have, under the law, what the celebrating of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is under the gospel; for it was the nature and use of that to show the Lord's death unt…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:2
Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season. Septuagint, ποιείτωσαν τὸ πάσχα. Cf. Matthew 26:18, ποιῶ τὸ πάσχα, and Luke 22:19, τοῦτο ποιεῖτε εἰς τὴν ἐμὴν ἀνάμνησιν. They may…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:3
At even. See on Exodus 12:6. According to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof. This must be understood only of the essential rites and ceremonies of the passover, as mentioned below (Exodus…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:5
And they kept the passover. It is a question which inevitably arises here, how they obtained a sufficient number of lambs for the requirement of so many people, and how they were slain sacrificially within the appointed…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:6
There were certain men. It has been supposed by many that these men must have been Mishael and Elizaphan, who had recently (cf. Exodus 40:17; Le Exodus 9:1; Exodus 10:4) been defiled by burying their cousins Nadab and A…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:6-13
A DIFFICULTY REMOVED I. THE DIFFICULTY STATED. Certain men, ceremonially unclean, could not partake of the passover (Numbers 5:1-4). One ceremonial observance, therefore, might clash with another. No one could with cert…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:6-14
A COMMUNICANT IN ISRAEL, DISABLED BY SOME MISCHANCE FROM EATING THE PASSOVER ON THE RIGHT DAY, MAY EAT IT A MONTH AFTER The law here laid down is supplementary to the law of the passover set forth at large in Exodus 12:…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:7
Wherefore are we kept back. The direction to remove from the camp all that were defiled by the dead (Numbers 5:2) had not apparently been given at this time, nor was there any express command that such should not partak…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:10
If any man of you or of your posterity. The particular case of these men is made the occasion for a general provision for all succeeding times. Shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey. It is somewh…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:11
The fourteenth day of the second month. The interval gave ample time to return from any ordinary journey, or to be purified from pollution of death. It was in the spirit of this command, though not in the letter of it,…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:12
According to all the ordinances of the passover. The later Jews held that this passover need only be kept for one day, and that leaven need not be put away from the house. But this was a clear departure from the origina…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:13
But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey. This threat was added no doubt in order to prevent men from taking advantage of the permission to keep a supplemental passover in order to suit their own convenience o…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:14
Ye shall have one ordinance. This is repeated from Exodus 12:49 as a further warning not to tamper more than absolute necessity required with the unity, either in time or in circumstance, of the great national rite. HOM…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:14
THE BENEFICENT ASPECT OF THE LAW OF MOSES TOWARDS FOREIGNERS Judaism, according to the "law given by Moses," was not the exclusive and repulsive system that many have imagined. The gate into Judaism, through circumcisio…
Matthew Henry on Numbers 9:15-23
This cloud was appointed to be the visible sign and symbol of God's presence with Israel. Thus we are taught to see God always near us, both night and day. As long as the cloud rested on the tabernacle, so long they con…
The Pillar of Cloud and Fire. (b. c. 1490.)
THE PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE. (B. C. 1490.) We have here the history of the cloud; not a natural history: who knows the balancings of the clouds? but a divine history of a cloud that was appointed to be the visible sign…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 9:15-23
EXPOSITION THE SIGNALS OF GOD (Numbers 9:15-23).