How can someone unclean through the dead or away on a distant journey keep the phase?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The Lord directs that person to keep it on the fourteenth day of the second month at evening, with unleavened bread and wild lettuce and all its ceremonies. The exception does not remove the penalty for a clean person who is not travelling and fails to offer in due season.

Chapter breakdown

Numbers 9 renews the phase observance and describes the cloud guiding the camp. In the desert of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after Israel leaves Egypt, the Lord tells Moses that Israel must make the phase at its due time.

Challoner explains “make the phase” as keeping the paschal solemnity and eating the paschal lamb. This is his explanation of the term.

The appointed time is the fourteenth day of the month at evening, according to all its ceremonies and prescribed requirements. Moses commands Israel to keep it. At Mount Sinai they do so at the proper time, the fourteenth day at evening, doing everything the Lord commanded Moses.

Some people who are unclean by occasion of a man’s soul cannot keep the phase that day. They come to Moses and Aaron.

Challoner explains this uncleanness as touching or coming near a dead body from which the soul has departed. This explanation belongs to the annotation.

They say they are unclean by occasion of a man’s soul and ask why they are kept back from offering to the Lord in its season among Israel. Moses tells them to stay while he consults the Lord about what he will ordain for them.

The Lord tells Moses to instruct Israel that a man unclean through someone dead, or on a distant journey in their nation, must keep the phase to the Lord. In the second month, on the fourteenth day at evening, they must eat it with unleavened bread and wild lettuce. They must leave none until morning and break no bone, observing all the ceremonies of the phase.

A man who is clean and not on a journey but does not keep the phase must be cut off from his people, because he did not offer sacrifice to the Lord in due season. He bears his sin. The sojourner and stranger among Israel must also keep the phase according to its ceremonies and requirements. The same ordinances apply to the stranger and the person born in the land.

On the day the tabernacle is set up, a cloud covers it; from evening until morning there is over it, as it were, the appearance of fire. This continues: cloud by day and the appearance of fire by night. When the cloud rises from the tabernacle, Israel marches. Where it stands still, they camp. They march and pitch the tabernacle at the Lord’s command. As long as the cloud remains over the tabernacle, they stay in that place.

If the cloud stays a long time, Israel keeps the watches of the Lord and does not march. However many days it stays, they pitch their tents and take them down at his command. If it stays from evening to morning and leaves at daybreak, they march; if it departs after a day and a night, they take down their tents. If it remains two days, a month or longer, they stay without marching. As soon as it departs, they move the camp. By the Lord’s word they pitch their tents and march, keeping his watches according to his command through Moses.

The story inside

The petition and answer are separate steps. Those unable to keep the phase because of uncleanness come to Moses and Aaron and ask why they are excluded from the offering. Moses tells them to wait while he consults the Lord. The answer names both death-related uncleanness and a distant journey, then gives the second-month date and meal rules. It also distinguishes this provision from the case of someone clean and not travelling who fails to keep the phase. The chapter records the command for the second-month observance, but does not say these petitioners later performed it. Their identities, the dead person’s identity and their feelings are not given.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The later date keeps specific meal rules. Unleavened bread, wild lettuce, no remains until morning and no broken bone remain required, so the timing provision is not a removal of the ceremonies.
2
The qualifying conditions matter. The law names uncleanness through the dead and distant travel, then separately states the penalty for a clean person who is not travelling.
3
Waiting is part of the camp’s obedience. The cloud may remain overnight, two days, a month or longer, and Israel stays until it departs; the length of the stay does not replace the Lord’s command.

Test your recall

How does the law distinguish those directed to keep the phase in the second month from the person who must be cut off for failing to keep it?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 15121–15131
Numbers Chapter 9 The precept of the pasch is renewed: the unclean and travellers are to observe it the second month: the camp is guided by the pillar of the cloud. 9:1. The Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai, the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first month, saying: 9:2. Let the children of Israel make the phase in its due time,
Lines 15133–15134
Make the phase.... That is, keep the paschal solemnity, and eat the paschal lamb.
Lines 15136–15144
9:3. The fourteenth day of this month in the evening, according to all the ceremonies and justifications thereof. 9:4. And Moses commanded the children of Israel that they should make the phase. 9:5. And they made it in its proper time: the fourteenth day of the month at evening, in mount Sinai. The children of Israel did according to all things that the Lord had commanded Moses.
Lines 15146–15147
9:6. But behold some who were unclean by occasion of the soul of a man, who could not make the phase on that day, coming to Moses and Aaron,
Lines 15149–15151
Behold some who were unclean by occasion of the soul of a man, etc.... That is, by having touched or come near a dead body, out of which the soul was departed.
Lines 15153–15158
9:7. Said to them: We are unclean by occasion of the soul of a man. Why are we kept back that we may not offer in its season the offering to the Lord among the children of Israel? 9:8. And Moses answered them: Stay that I may consult the Lord what he will ordain concerning you.
Lines 15160–15170
9:9. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 9:10. Say to the children of Israel: The man that shall be unclean by occasion of one that is dead, or shall be in a journey afar off in your nation, let him make the phase to the Lord. 9:11. In the second month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, they shall eat it with unleavened bread and wild lettuce: 9:12. They shall not leave any thing thereof until morning, nor break a bone thereof, they shall observe all the ceremonies of the phase.
Lines 15172–15180
9:13. But if any man is clean, and was not on a journey, and did not make the phase, that soul shall be cut off from among his people, because he offered not sacrifice to the Lord in due season: he shall bear his sin. 9:14. The sojourner also and the stranger if they be among you, shall make the phase to the Lord according to the ceremonies and justifications thereof. The same ordinances shall be with you both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.
Lines 15182–15195
9:15. Now on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, a cloud covered it. But from the evening there was over the tabernacle, as it were, the appearance of fire until the morning. 9:16. So it was always: by day the cloud covered it, and by night as it were the appearance of fire. 9:17. And when the cloud that covered the tabernacle was taken up, then the children of Israel marched forward: and in the place where the cloud stood still, there they camped. 9:18. At the commandment of the Lord they marched, and at his commandment they pitched the tabernacle. All the days that the cloud abode over the tabernacle, they remained in the same place:
Lines 15197–15217
9:19. And if it was so that it continued over it a long time, the children of Israel kept the watches of the Lord, and marched not, 9:20. For as many days soever as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle. At the commandment of the Lord they pitched their tents, and at his commandment they took them down. 9:21. If the cloud tarried from evening until morning, and immediately at break of day left the tabernacle, they marched forward: and if it departed after a day and a night, they took down their tents. 9:22. But if it remained over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a longer time, the children of Israel remained in the same place, and marched not: but immediately as soon as it departed, they removed the camp. 9:23. By the word of the Lord they pitched their tents, and by his word they marched: and kept the watches of the Lord according to his commandment by the hand of Moses.