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Celebration of Easter. – Passover of those unclean according to the law; Easter for travelers. - The cloud is over the tabernacle of meeting. Numbers 9:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the second year after they came out of the land of Egypt, in the first month, saying: Numbers 9:2. Let the children of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time: Numbers 9:3. On the fourteenth day of this month in the evening you will perform it at the time appointed for it, according to all its decrees and according to all its rites. Numbers 9:4. And Moses said to the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover. There is an assumption that the Passover celebrated by the Jews near Mount Sinai was the only one celebrated during their wanderings through the Arabian desert. In confirmation of this, the fact is pointed out that during the wanderings in the desert, the rite of circumcision among the Jewish people was not observed with due strictness (Josh. 5: 2–8); according to the meaning of Ex. 12:48, the uncircumcised could not eat the Passover. The next mention of the Jews celebrating Passover is found in Joshua 5.10 after the story about the nationwide implementation of the law of circumcision. Numbers 9:9. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Numbers 9:10. Tell the children of Israel: if any of you or of your descendants is unclean from touching a dead body, or is on a long journey, then he too must keep the Passover of the Lord; Numbers 9:11. on the fourteenth day of the second month in the evening let such people do it, and let them eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs; Numbers 9:12. and let them not leave her until the morning and let her not break her bones; let them perform it according to all the regulations regarding Easter; Passover, celebrated for some valid reason later than the lawful one, was called by the Jews Little Passover. Later, such a Passover was celebrated by the Jewish king Hezekiah, since the priests and Levites did not have time to cleanse the neglected church and cleanse themselves by the 14th day of the first month (2 Chronicles 30:2). Numbers 9:13. but whoever is clean and is not on a [distant] journey and does not keep the Passover, that soul will be cut off from his people, for he did not bring an offering to the Lord in due time: that person will bear his sin; The expression: “that soul shall be cut off from his people” is understood differently. The violator of the Passover law was subjected to either the death penalty, or expulsion from the people, or experienced the direct power of the punishing right hand of Jehovah (cf. Gen. 9:11; Gen. 17:14; Exod. 30:33; Lev. 18:29, etc.). Numbers 9:15. On the day that the tabernacle was erected, a cloud covered the tabernacle of testimony, and from the evening a kind of fire was visible over the tabernacle until the morning. Numbers 9:16. This is how it always was: a cloud covered it [during the day] and a likeness of fire at night. Numbers 9:17. And when the cloud lifted up from the tabernacle, then the children of Israel set out on their journey, and in the place where the cloud stopped, there the children of Israel encamped. Numbers 9:18. At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel set out on their journey, and at the commandment of the Lord they stopped: all the time that the cloud stood over the tabernacle, and they stood; Numbers 9:19. and if the cloud was over the tabernacle for a long time, then the children of Israel followed this instruction of the Lord and did not depart; Numbers 9:20. sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle for a short time: they stopped at the direction of the Lord, and at the direction of the Lord they set off on their journey; Numbers 9:21. sometimes the cloud stood only from evening until morning, and in the morning the cloud rose, then they set off; or the cloud stood day and night, and when it rose, they then departed; Numbers 9:22. or if the cloud stood over the tabernacle for two days, or a month, or several days, then the children of Israel also stood and did not set out on their journey; and when it rose, then they set off; Numbers 9:23. at the commandment of the Lord they stopped, and at the commandment of the Lord they set out: they followed the commandment of the Lord, according to the commandment of the Lord given through Moses. A note about the miraculous cloud that covered the tabernacle and directed the movement of the Israelite camp (cf. Ex. 40:34–38). You might be interested in: