Numbers 9:3

9:3 In the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, ¹  you are to observe it at its appointed time; you must keep ²  it in accordance with all its statutes and all its customs.” ³ 

Numbers 9:10

9:10 “Tell the Israelites, ‘If any ⁴  of you or of your posterity become ceremonially defiled by touching a dead body, or are on a journey far away, then he may ⁵  observe the Passover to the Lord.

Numbers 23:13

23:13 Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from which you can observe them. You will see only a part of them, but you will not see all of them. Curse them for me from there.”

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¹ tn The literal Hebrew expression is “between the evenings” (so also in vv. 5, 11). Sunset is certainly one evening; the other may refer to the change in the middle of the afternoon to the late afternoon, or the beginning of dusk. The idea is probably just at twilight, or dusk (see R. B. Allen, TWOT 2:694).

² tn The two verbs in this verse are identical; they are imperfects of instruction. The English translation has been modified for stylistic variation.

³ tn The two words in this last section are standard “Torah” words. The word חֹק (khoq) is a binding statute, something engraved and monumental. The word מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) means “judgment, decision,” but with a more general idea of “custom” at its core. The verse is making it very clear that the Passover had to follow the custom and form that was legislated in Egypt.

⁴ tn This sense is conveyed by the repetition of “man” – “if a man, a man becomes unclean.”

⁵ tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive functions as the equivalent of an imperfect tense. In the apodosis of this conditional sentence, the permission nuance fits well.