Numbers 9:23

Num 9:23 At the commandment of the LORD they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the LORD they journeyed: they kept the charge of the LORD, at the commandment of the LORD by the hand of Moses.

Ver. 23. At the commandment of the Lord.] This signified that the saints are to rest, or go on, at the voice of Christ, {Joh 10:3-4} and that "whatsoever they do in word or deed, to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus," {Col 3:17} to seek and find all their perfection and defenee in him alone.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Under the charge and government of Moses.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 23. Kept the charge of the Lord] When we consider the strong disposition which this people ever testified to follow their own will in all things, we may be well surprised to find them, in these journeyings, so implicitly following the directions of God. There could be no trick or imposture here. Moses, had he been the most cunning of men, never could have imitated the appearances referred to in this chapter. The cloud, and every thing in its motion, was so evidently supernatural, that the people had no doubt of its being the symbol of the Divine presence.

GOD chose to keep this people so dependent upon himself, and so submissive to the decisions of his own will, that he would not even give them regular times of marching or resting; they were to do both when and where God saw best. Thus they were ever kept ready for their march, though perfectly ignorant of the time when they should commence it. But this was all well; they had the presence of God with them; the cloud by day and the fire by night demonstrated that God was amongst them. Reader, thou art here a tenant at will to God Almighty. How soon, in what place, or in what circumstances, he may call thee to march into the eternal world, thou knowest not. But this uncertainty cannot perplex thee, if thou be properly subject to the will of God, ever willing to lose thy own in it. But thou canst not be thus subject, unless thou have the testimony of the presence and approbation of God. How awful to be obliged to walk into the valley of the shadow of death without this! Reader, prepare to meet thy God.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Num_9:15-23

The fiery cloud upon the Tabernacle

After a reference (Num_9:15 a) to the event related in Exo_40:34 f., the section describes the invariable custom throughout the journeys of starting on the march when the cloud rose from the Tabernacle, and halting as long as it rested. It is an expansion of Exo_40:36-38. The characteristic redundancy of the priestly style is noticeable.

The different writers of the Pentateuch describe different features in the appearance of the cloud. In J Jehovah is represented as leading the people by moving in front of them in a column of cloud by day and of fire by night (see on Num_14:14), and this began at the departure from Egypt (Exo_13:21). In E the cloud is pictured similarly as a column, but its appearance is not mentioned until the sacred ‘tent of meeting’ had been erected, when it came down from time to time and stood at the door of the tent which was pitched outside the camp (Exo_33:7-11, Num_11:25; Num_12:5; Num_12:10, Deu_31:15). In P it is not described as a column, but (as in J ) it was fiery at night, and (as in E ) it did not appear till the Tabernacle was erected, except that it formed part of the theophany on Mt Sinai (Exo_24:15-18). It is not spoken of as a guide moving in front of the people, but it covered the Tabernacle which stood in the centre of the camp. It was the visible counterpart outside the sanctuary of the ‘Glory,’ the manifestation of the divine presence within.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Watches, like sentinels, observing the signal of the cloud; and regulating the time and course of their marches by its direction. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

23. They kept the charge of the Lord — The lesson of trust in Jehovah and of patient waiting for his leadings was well learned, and always practised except on one memorable occasion, (Num_14:40-45,) when they presumed to advance without the guidance of the cloud, and met discomfiture and death. The term charge has special reference to following the guidance of Jehovah in marching and encamping, as is seen in Num_9:19. When we consider the proneness of men to lean upon their own understanding, and to direct their own steps, this record is highly creditable to the Israelites, especially in view of their long periods of encampment, when their entrance into the promised land seemed to be indefinitely postponed for reasons in the divine mind to them utterly incomprehensible. In this whole account of the cloud the fact of Jehovah’s guidance is reiterated again and again with emphasis. Maimonides says, that this particularity and repetition of statement was designed to confute the opinions of the Arabians and others, that the Israelites were so long detained in the “Wilderness of Wandering,” as Arabic writers style it, because they had lost their way, and therefore spent forty years in vaguely wandering over the desert. This, he observes, is a very idle conceit, as the way from Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea was a well known and frequented route, and not above eleven days’ journey, so that they could not be supposed to have missed it, and far less should have wandered in a bewildered condition forty years.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.