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Numbers 9 Bible study: At the commandment of the LORD
When unclean men asked, "Why are we kept back?", Moses waited to hear from the LORD, and the answer was a second Passover a month later, for them and for anyone far away on a journey (9:7-11). And "the commandment of the LORD" that moved and stopped the camp, seven times over, is in Hebrew the mouth of the LORD (9:18-23).
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“At the commandment of the LORD they encamped, and at the commandment of the LORD they traveled. They kept the LORD’s command, at the commandment of the LORD by Moses.”
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“When the unclean men asked why they were kept back, Moses told them to wait while he heard what the LORD would command.”
Is that in Numbers 9, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
A year after Egypt, the Passover again
In Egypt the LORD had said of the Passover, "You shall keep it as a feast throughout your generations" (Exodus 12:14). Israel left Egypt "on the next day after the Passover" (Numbers 33:3). Now, "in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt" (9:1), the LORD says, "Let the children of Israel keep the Passover in its appointed season" (9:2). And they do: "They kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did" (9:5). From Exodus to Joshua, the Bible records Israel keeping the Passover three times: in Egypt (Exodus 12:28), here in the wilderness of Sinai, and at Gilgal after they cross the Jordan (Joshua 4:19, 5:10). The other times these books mention the Passover, they give its law or its date.
Where it leads to Jesus
As I hear, I judge
Numbers 9:8leads toJohn 5:30
When the unclean men asked, "Why are we kept back…?" (9:7), Moses didn't give them an answer of his own. He said, "Wait, that I may hear what the LORD will command concerning you" (9:8), and the answer came from the LORD (9:9-14). Jesus said of himself, "I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is righteous, because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me" (John 5:30). Jesus doesn't mention Numbers 9, and the New Testament doesn't link his words to this chapter. What they share is not answering from oneself, but deciding by what is heard: Moses waits to hear what the LORD will command, and Jesus judges as he hears, seeking “the will of my Father who sent me”. These are Jesus' own words set beside this chapter, not a fulfillment of it.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Numbers 9
That was a taste
The rest of Numbers 9 is waiting in Favor
- "Why are we kept back?"
- One statute, for the foreigner too
- Seven times, "the commandment of the LORD"
- A Passover in the second month, again
- "A bone of him will not be broken"
- The cloud, remembered
- 10 questions as you read
- 11 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Numbers 9 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
פֶּהpehsay PEH
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "mouth". Strong's: "the mouth (as the means of blowing), whether literal or figurative (particularly speech)", and among the ways it is translated, "command(-ment)". "At the commandment of the LORD" (9:18) is, in Hebrew, literally at the mouth of the LORD. The WEB's "the commandment of the LORD" in 9:18-23 is this word seven times, and the same word is in "Whenever" in 9:17. Israel moved and stopped at what the LORD said. The word is back in the next chapter: "They first went forward according to the commandment of the LORD by Moses" (Numbers 10:13). Moses would later remind Israel "that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the LORD’s mouth" (Deuteronomy 8:3), and Jesus answered the tempter with those words (Matthew 4:4).
For your group
Numbers 9 Bible study questions
- 1The unclean men didn't stay away. They came and asked, "Why are we kept back?" (9:7). When something keeps you back from worship or from God's people, what do you do with it?
- 2Moses said, "Wait, that I may hear what the LORD will command concerning you" (9:8). When is it hard for you to say that you don't know yet, and ask God first?
- 3Some unclean men's question became a law for "any man of you or of your generations" (9:10), and for the traveler too. When has someone's honest question opened a way for others?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Numbers 9 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home