The Second Passover
1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “Let the Israelites keep the Passover in its appointed season. 3 You shall keep it in its appointed season, on the evening of the fourteenth day of this month, according to all its statutes and all its ordinances.”
4 Moses told the Israelites that they should keep the Passover. 5 They kept the Passover in the first month, on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the Israelites did. 6 There were certain men who were unclean because of contact with the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day. 7 Those men said to him, “We are unclean because of the dead body of a man? Why are we, among the Israelites, kept back from presenting the offering of the Lord in its appointed season?”
8 Moses answered them, “Wait, that I may hear what the Lord will command concerning you.”
9 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Say to the Israelites, ‘If any man from among you or your generations is unclean because of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, he shall still keep the Passover to the Lord. 11 In the second month, on the evening of the fourteenth day, they shall keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break a bone of it. According to the entire statute of the Passover they shall keep it. 13 But the man who is clean, and is not on a journey, and fails to keep the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people. Because he did not present the offering of the Lord in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.
14 If a foreigner lives among you and desires to keep the Passover to the Lord, then he shall do so according to the statute of the Passover and according to its ordinance. You shall have one statute, both for the foreigner and for him who is born in the land.’ ”
The Cloud above the Tabernacle
15 On the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the Tent of the Testimony. At evening it was over the tabernacle, like the appearance of fire, until morning. 16 So it was continually, the cloud covering it, and the appearance of fire by night. 17 Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, then after that the Israelites traveled, and in the place where the cloud remained, there the Israelites encamped. 18 At the commandment of the Lord, the Israelites traveled, and at the commandment of the Lord they encamped. As long as the cloud remained on the tabernacle they remained encamped. 19 When the cloud stayed on the tabernacle many days, then the Israelites kept the Lord’s command and did not travel.
20 Sometimes the cloud was a few days on the tabernacle. Then, according to the commandment of the Lord they remained encamped, and according to the commandment of the Lord they traveled. 21 Sometimes the cloud was there only from evening until morning. When the cloud was taken up in the morning, they traveled, or by day and by night, when the cloud was taken up, they traveled. 22 Whether it was two days, or a month, or a year that the cloud stayed on the tabernacle, remaining on it, the Israelites remained encamped, and did not travel, but when it was taken up, they traveled. 23 At the commandment of the Lord they encamped, and at the commandment of the Lord they traveled. They kept the Lord’s charge at the commandment of the Lord through Moses.