Discovery BoxNumbers 9:4-6 
Context9:4 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.
