Numbers 9-10

Numbers 9: The Passover as Sinai / The Cloud and the Fire
Numbers 10: The Silver Trumpets / Departure from Sinai

Numbers 9

The Passover at Sinai: Numbers 9.1-14
Again, we travel back to the first month of the second year in the wilderness [Numbers 1 located us in the second month].

The Israelites keep the passover at twilight of the fourteenth day in the first month of the second year in the wilderness of Sinai. However, some of the people are unclean through touching a corpse, which prevents them from presenting offerings to the Lord, thereby keeping the passover. They approach Moses and Aaron and present their case. Moses goes to check with the Lord. The Lord commands that even those unclean through contact with a corpse and those that are away from the camp should still keep the passover. In addition, anyone who is clean and in the camp that does not keep the passover shall be cut off from the people by God. Resident aliens may also keep the passover if they desire.

The passover is unique in that even the unclean may take part. For a text so concerned with proper action, this is an interesting concession. One explanation may be that uncleanliness is a temporary state, and the importance of the passover is such that the importance of the person's offering supersedes any unholiness.

The Cloud and the Fire: Numbers 9.15-23
We have seen this cloud before - it is the same one that led the Israelites out of Egypt.

On the day the tabernacle is set up, a cloud comes to cover the tent of the covenant. During the day it has the appearance of a cloud, during the night it has the appearance of fire.

Numbers 9.17 offers a succinct statement of movement and rest for the Israelites, following signs from the cloud of God's presence:

Whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, then the Israelites would set out; and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the Israelites would camp.
(Num. 9.17)

After that, verses 18-23 reiterate this point in different ways so that the point is established firmly in the mind of the reader. The instructions may have served a rhetorical purpose in the past, but today seem redundant. It was surely sections like this that inspired the "holy hand grenade" sketch from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.



Numbers 10

The Silver Trumpets: Numbers 10.1-10
The Lord commands Moses to make two silver trumpets "of hammered work," meaning not of animal horn. So rather than looking like a traditional shofar...

[Man not included. Photos courtesy Wikipedia]

The trumpet would be all metal. Still, it would more resemble a bugle or just a straight pipe than any sort of modern valved trumpet we know today.

These trumpets are used to summon the congregation and break camp. The sound of both being blown summons the entire congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting. The sound of one blowing summons only the leaders of the tribes. An alarm (which is different than a blow) indicates that the east side of the camp shall set out. Subsequent alarms indicate that the south should leave. It is not explicitly stated that the alarm should sound to rouse the western and northern tribes. This could be for a number of reasons:

1. Copy error. Perhaps it was not copied from one version to the next.
2. There in fact was no need to blow the horn. The other tribes would follow.
3. Though a trumpet should be blown for the other sides of the tent, the biblical author felt the information was unimportant. This is the most unlikely of the three options. The bible may be laconic, but it is very specific in its instructions. One need only take a look at the account of "The Cloud and the Fire" (see description above) to understand the importance of specificity.

The trumpets shall be blown only by the priests. It is to be blown in battle "so that you may be remembered before the Lord your God and saved from your enemies" as well as on days of rejoicing, at the appointed festivals, and at the beginning of the month. The sound of the trumpet is a reminder to the Israelites that they belong to the Lord - and by extension, that God will protect them (if they are good):

"they shall serve as a reminder on your behalf before the Lord your God: I am the Lord your God" (Num 10.10).

Departure from Sinai: Numbers 10.11-36

The cloud lifts from over the tabernacle on the twentieth day of the second month of the second year after escaping Egypt. For everyone trying to keep track of time, it is 19 days after the census, and 11 months and 19 days after the Israelites arrived at the wilderness of Sinai.

The Israelites set out by stages to the wilderness of Paran, where the cloud settles down. The bible describes the Israelites setting out company by company in a passage with a lot of names and repetition - nothing we haven't seen before.

Moses tells his Midianite (i.e. not Israelite) father-in-law Hobab* that the Israelites are setting out, and asks if Reuel will come with them, for the Israelites will treat him well. Hobab responds that he will not go, but will rather return to his homeland. Moses ups the ante: The Israelites depend on Hobab for his knowledge of places to camp in the wilderness and his good eyes for seeing enemies. Moreover, if he follows them, he will be cared for as God cares for the Israelites: "whatever good the Lord does for us, the same we will do for you" (Num. 10.32). As a Midianite, Hobab cannot be holy so he is offered the next best thing: inclusion. Hobab will not receive the goodness from God, but he will get a taste of God's goodness through the Israelites.

The Israelites set out on a three-day's journey from Sinai.

The passage ends with what seems to be two battle cries:

Whenever the ark set out, Moses would say,

‘Arise, O Lord, let your enemies be scattered,
and your foes flee before you.’

And whenever it came to rest, he would say,

‘Return, O Lord of the ten thousand thousands of Israel.’

(Num. 10.35-36)

The battle cries seem predicated on the ark, which of course is God's throne, upon which the cloud of pillar and fire rests when God is with the people. The Israelites' battles are divinely sanctioned, and indeed God as divine warrior is with the people when they fight.

*The name established in Ex. 2. The man is also called Jethro in Ex. 3. The name depends on the tradition. Likewise, Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai are interchangeable, different names for the same place.

Tomorrow: It's been a while since we've heard complaining in the wilderness, right?