Numbers 9:3

Num 9:3 In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it.

Ver. 3. According to all the rites.] It was a true saying of Socrates in Xenophon, Deum eo cultus genere coli velle, quem ipse instituerit that God must be worshipped in his own way only. Whereunto agreeth that of Cicero, Deum non superstitione coli velle, sed pietate.

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.

Even in all points as the Lord hath instituted it.

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

Verse 3. According to all the rites of it] See all those rites and ceremonies largely explained in Clarke's notes on Ex 12:1-51.

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

(3) At even.—Hebrew, between the two evenings. (See Note on Exo_12:6.)

According to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof.—Better, according to all the statutes and ordinances thereof. It is obvious that some of the directions concerning the Egyptian Passover could not be observed in the wilderness. The reference must, therefore, be to those statutes and ordinances respecting the Passover which were of permanent obligation. (Comp. Num_9:12, where the ordinance respecting the time of observance is necessarily excluded.) Some of these are found in Exodus 12, whilst others of a later date are recorded in Leviticus 17 and Deuteronomy 16. It has been objected that three priests (for Nadab and Abihu were dead) could not sprinkle the blood of the large number of lambs which must have been slain. It must be remembered, however, (1) that there is no express injunction respecting the sprinkling of the blood on this occasion; and (2) that the priests were probably assisted at this time in the performance of some of their duties—as we are expressly informed that they were at the Passovers celebrated by Hezekiah and by Josiah (2Ch_30:16; 2Ch_35:11)—by the Levites.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. all the statutes of it] These were laid down in Exo_12:1-20; Exo_12:43-49 (P ), Exo_12:21–23 (J ). The feast is referred to as a type in 1Co_5:7 f.; cf. Col_1:14, Eph_1:7 (with Armitage Robinson’s note).

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.

In the fourteenth day of this month,.... The first month, the month Nisan or Abib, answering to part of our March:

at even ye shall keep it, in his appointed season: between the two evenings, Exo 12:6; and even if it fall on the sabbath day, as Jarchi; and this was a sabbath day, according to the Jewish writers (y):

according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof shall ye keep it; the former of these, according to Jarchi, respects the lamb, and the requisites of it, that it should be without blemish, a male, and of the first year; and the latter, according to him and others, the removal of the leaven, and the seven days of unleavened bread, and the eating of the lamb with bitter herbs: they take in no doubt all that were prescribed by the original law, except the sprinkling of the blood on the doorposts, and also eating the passover in haste, with their loins girt, and shoes on their feet, and staves in their hands; though some think these latter might be observed at this time, when they were unsettled.

(y) Seder Olam Rabba. c. 7.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

In the. Hebrew, "between the two evenings," Exodus xii. 6. Septuagint, "towards the evening, in its season, according to its law, and determination," sugkrisin, (ver. 14,) suntaxin, "arrangement;" in both places we have justifications. (Haydock) --- God’s law is so called, because nothing can be done right without it. (Menochius) --- The merit of human actions depends on their conformity with the will of God; (Du Hamel) and when he gives directions, we must comply exactly. (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).

So far as concerned the lamb and the unleavened bread, &c., for there were some things peculiar to the first passover in Egypt, as that they were to eat it in haste, with their loins girded, their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand, which were not properly rites or ceremonies of the passover, but circumstances of their present condition being the travellers and ready to depart, &c.

Quest. Whence had they meal to make unleavened bread

Answ. They were not now in haste, and so had time enough to procure it out of the land of Midian by the help of Moses’s father-in-law, who lived there, which land was not far from Horeb or Sinai, as appears from Exo 3:1.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. At even — Hebrews, between the two evenings. The first evening began when the sun crossed the meridian, and the second at sunset. See Exo_12:6, note.

According to all the rites — R.V., “statutes.” The changed circumstances must have rendered some slight variations necessary. There is no express command, it is true, that the blood, instead of being smeared upon the lintel and posts of the doors or entrances to the tents, should be sprinkled upon the altar of burnt offering, but it is quite probable that this change was made, since there was no destroying angel about to pass through the camp, while there was a newly-consecrated altar upon which the blood of all animals slain for food, as well as in sacrifice, was to be poured out. See Lev_17:1-6, notes. The objection raised by Kurtz, that the priests, Aaron, Eleazar, and Ithamar, would be unable to perform this service, is relieved by the suggestion that they were assisted by the Levites in every thing but the act of sprinkling. See chap. Num_8:19, note. Assuming that one sheep a year old would furnish a supper for fifteen males and fifteen females, 80,000 lambs would be required. If it was possible in the time of the Emperor Nero to sprinkle upon the altar of the temple the blood of 256,500 paschal lambs in one afternoon by actual count, according to Josephus, it must have been possible in Moses’s time to sprinkle the blood of less than one third of that number upon an altar five cubits square. But this difficulty disappears if we suppose that the law of the passover takes the precedence of subsequent laws for the treatment of the blood. In this case each slayer of a lamb disposes of the blood at his own tent. A pastoral nation could easily furnish one sheep for every thirty of its population.

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

At even. See on Exo_12:6. According to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof. This must be understood only of the essential rites and ceremonies of the passover, as mentioned below (verses 11, 12). It is singular that no mention is made of the considerable departure which circumstances necessitated from the original institution. It was not possible, e.g., to strike the blood of the lamb upon the lintel and the side-posts of the doors, because in the wilderness they had no doors. In after ages this rite (which was of the essence of the institution) was represented by the sprinkling of the blood of the lambs on the altar, (2Ch_30:16) but no command is on record which expressly authorized the change. In Lev 17:8-6 there is indeed a general direction, applying apparently to all domestic animals slain for food, that they be brought to the tabernacle to be slain, and that the priest sprinkle the blood upon the altar; and in Deu_16:5-7 there is an order that in future times the passover was only to he slain at the place which the Lord should choose. The actual practice in later ages seems to have been founded partly upon the command in Deuteronomy, which restricted the killing of the passover to Jerusalem (not, however, to the temple), and partly on the command in Leviticus, which really applied (at any rate in the letter) to the time of wandering only. As the celebration of the paschal feast had apparently been neglected from the time of Joshua until that of the later kings, (Jos_5:10 2Ki_23:22) they were no doubt guided in the observance of it by the analogy of other sacrifices in the absence of express commands. It would, however, be an obvious source of error to assume that the practice of the age of Josiah or Hezekiah was the practice of the earliest passovers; so far as these necessarily differed from the original institution, it is absolutely uncertain how the difficulty was solved. Nothing perhaps better illustrates the mingled rigidity and elasticity of the Divine ordinances than the observance of the passover, in which so much of changed detail was united with so real and so unvarying a uniformity.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ככל חקותיו ACCORDING TO ALL RITES OF IT [… SHALL YE KEEP IT] — This refers to the laws relating to its body itself (i.e. the animal itself) while alive — that it must be “a lamb, without blemish, a male, one year old” (Exodus 12:5) (Sifrei Bamidbar 65).

וככל משפטיו AND ACCORDING TO ALL THE REGULATIONS THEREOF — This again refers to commands which have a bearing upon the animal itself but originating from another place (i.e. outside the animal itself), e.g. seven days for eating unleavened bread and during which the leaven must be removed from one’s home. [Some editions have (cf. Nachmanides): the laws relating to the animal itself are that it must be “a lamb, without blemish, a male and one year old”. Such as have to be practiced upon its body (note the difference in the meaning of this phrase, and the omission of ממקום אחר) are those mentioned in Exodus 12:9: “roasted with fire, its head with its legs and the inward parts thereof”; and finally such as go beyond the sacrifice itself: the eating of unleavened bread and the removal of leaven from the house].

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

ACCORDING TO ALL THE STATUTES OF IT, AND ACCORDING TO ALL THE ORDINANCES THEREOF, SHALL YE BRING IT [i.e., the Passover-offering]. Now it is written in the commentary of Rashi: “According to all the statutes of it — this refers to the laws concerning the animal itself, [that it should be] a lamb without blemish, a male of the first year., Verse 5. And according to all the ordinances thereof — this relates to the laws ‘upon’ the lamb, such as eating unleavened bread for seven days, and the removal of leavened bread.” But this is a copyist’s error. [For the laws which concern the animal itself are as stated above], a lamb without blemish, a male of the first year;, Verse 5. the laws “upon” the animal are that it should be roast with fire; its head with its legs and with the inwards thereof; whereas the laws which are “outside” the animal itself are [the duty to eat] unleavened bread [on the first evening of the festival] and the duty of removing leavened bread, concerning which Scripture does not speak here at all. Similarly, it is said of the second Passover that [it should be observed] according to the statute of the Passover, and according to the ordinance thereof, and a person may [then] have both unleavened bread and leavened bread with him in his house, and it applies for only one day. of the second Passover, since we have been taught that on the second Passover one may have both unleavened and leavened bread with one in the house! Furthermore, the second Passover applies only for one day; so how can there be a duty to eat unleavened bread for seven days included in “the ordinances that are upon the animal” [as our texts of Rashi have it]!Now Scripture spoke briefly, saying, at dusk, ye shall bring it in its appointed season; according to all the statutes of it, and according to all the ordinances thereof, shall ye bring it, thereby including the laws relating to eating it, that it should not be on the day mentioned by the verse [on which the offering is slaughtered], but it is to be eaten on the following night, since He already explained previously, And they shall eat the flesh in that night etc. Similarly, In the second month on the fourteenth day at dusk they shall bring it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, means they shall eat it at the time of eating mentioned in the command concerning the first Passover.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.