Numbers 9:10

10 “Tell the Israelites: ‘When any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they are still to celebrate the LORD’s Passover,

Numbers 9:10 in Other Translations

KJV
10 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the LORD.
ESV
10 "Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If any one of you or of your descendants is unclean through touching a dead body, or is on a long journey, he shall still keep the Passover to the LORD.
NLT
10 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: If any of the people now or in future generations are ceremonially unclean at Passover time because of touching a dead body, or if they are on a journey and cannot be present at the ceremony, they may still celebrate the LORD ’s Passover.
MSG
10 "Tell the People of Israel, If one or another of you is ritually unclean because of a corpse, or you happen to be off on a long trip, you may still celebrate God's Passover.
CSB
10 "Tell the Israelites: When any one of you or your descendants is unclean because of a corpse or is on a distant journey, he may still observe the Passover to the Lord.

Numbers 9:10 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 9:10

Speak unto the children of Israel, saying
Not to the men only that came to Moses for advice, but to the body of the people; for the answer of the Lord concerned them all, and carried in it a rule to be observed in the like case, and others mentioned, in all succeeding ages, as long as the passover was an ordinance of God:

if any man of you;
or "a man, a man", or any private man; for, according to the Jewish writers, this law only respects private persons, as those were who were the occasion of its being made:

or of your posterity;
or "in your generations" F2, or "ages"; which shows that this law respected future times, and not the present case only:

shall be unclean by reason of a dead body;
see ( Numbers 9:6 ) ; Maimonides


FOOTNOTES:

F3 says, this only respects uncleanness by a dead body, and not uncleanness by any creeping thing; for such as were unclean by them might sacrifice, though a private person, and eat the passover at evening with purity, when he had been cleansed: yet he says elsewhere {d}, that such that had issues, and menstruous women, and those that lay with them, and women in childbed, were unclean, and were put off to the second passover; and so the Targum of Jonathan here adds,

``or that has an issue, or a leprous person:''

or [be] in a journey afar off;
which, according to Ben Gersom, was fifteen miles; so in the Misnah F5, and the commentators on it:

yet he shall keep the passover of the Lord;
not the first, but second, according to the directions given in ( Numbers 9:11-14 ) .


F2 (Mkytrdl) "generationibus vestris", Pagninus, Montanus; "in aetatibus vestris", Drusius.
F3 In Misn. ut supra, (c. 7. sect. 6.) T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 93. 2.
F4 Hilchot Corban Pesach, c. 6. sect. 1.
F5 Pesachim, c. 9. sect. 2. Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.

Numbers 9:10 In-Context

8 Moses answered them, “Wait until I find out what the LORD commands concerning you.”
9 Then the LORD said to Moses,
10 “Tell the Israelites: ‘When any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they are still to celebrate the LORD’s Passover,
11 but they are to do it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
12 They must not leave any of it till morning or break any of its bones. When they celebrate the Passover, they must follow all the regulations.

Cross References 2

Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.