Read the Modern Pastor’s Version

In the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after the Israelites had come out of Egypt, the Lord spoke to Moses.

"You must keep the Passover at its appointed season," he said. "On the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you shall observe it according to all its statutes and ordinances."

Moses told the Israelites to keep the Passover as the Lord had commanded. And so they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai.

But certain men who were defiled by a dead body could not keep the Passover that day. They came before Moses and Aaron, saying, "We are defiled by the dead body of a man. Why are we kept back from offering the Lord's sacrifice at its appointed time among the Israelites?"

Moses asked them to stand still while he heard what the Lord would command concerning them.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Anyone who is clean and not on a journey but fails to keep the Passover will be cut off from his people. This is because they did not present the offering of the Lord at its appointed time."

Moses was instructed to tell the Israelites that if any of them or their descendants were ritually unclean because of a dead body, or were traveling far away, yet still wished to observe the Passover, they should do so. They were to observe it on the fourteenth day of the second month at evening, eating it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

They must leave none of it until morning, nor break any bone of it, keeping it according to all the ordinances of the Passover.

The man who is clean and not on a journey, yet refuses to keep the Passover, will be cut off from his people because he failed to bring the Lord's offering at its appointed time.

A stranger sojourning among them could also observe the Passover in accordance with its ordinance and manner. There would be one law for both the foreigner and him born within their land.

As long as the tabernacle was set up, a cloud covered it by day, and at night its appearance was like fire. The Israelites journeyed when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, and they pitched their tents in the place where the cloud abode.

At the Lord's command, the Israelites journeyed and pitched their tents; they rested in their encampments as long as the cloud remained on the tabernacle. When the cloud lingered over the tabernacle for many days, the Israelites remained in their encampment until it was lifted, then they traveled at the Lord's command.

When the cloud remained on the tabernacle, the Israelites camped according to the Lord's command; and when it was lifted, they journeyed by the Lord's command. They moved on whenever the cloud stayed in one place from evening to morning and was lifted up in the morning, or if it was taken up at night.

As long as the cloud remained on the tabernacle, the Israelites stayed in their tents and did not journey. But when it was taken up, they traveled according to the Lord's command.

At the Lord's direction, they rested in their tents and journeyed at his word, keeping the charge of the Lord by Moses' hand.