Numbers 9:4-6

9:4 So Moses instructed ¹  the Israelites to observe ²  the Passover. 9:5 And they observed the Passover ³  on the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight in the wilderness of Sinai; in accordance with all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so the Israelites did.

9:6 It happened that some men ⁴  who were ceremonially defiled ⁵  by the dead body of a man ⁶  could not keep ⁷  the Passover on that day, so they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.

---

¹ tn Heb “spoke to.”

² tn The infinitive construct functions as the direct object of the preceding verb (a Hebrew complementary usage), answering the question of what he said.

³ tc The LXX omits this first clause; it also omits “at twilight.”

⁴ tn In the Hebrew text the noun has no definite article, and so it signifies “some” or “certain” men.

⁵ tn The meaning, of course, is to be ceremonially unclean, and therefore disqualified from entering the sanctuary.

⁶ tn Or “a human corpse” (so NAB, NKJV). So also in v.7; cf. v. 10.

⁷ tn This clause begins with the vav (ו) conjunction and negative before the perfect tense. Here is the main verb of the sentence: They were not able to observe the Passover. The first part of the verse provides the explanation for their problem.