Numbers 9:15-23

The Movement of the Camp Determined by the Fiery Cloud. Since according to P the Tabernacle was in the centre of the camp when it was stationary, and in the midst of the column when it was on the march (Numbers 2:17; Numbers 10:21), the setting or rising of the cloud above it only gave the signal for encamping or for breaking up the camp: the direction of the march was conveyed from Yahweh through Moses (Numbers 10:13). The view of the writer of Numbers 10:33 * is quite different. The conception of the cloud as fiery (Numbers 9:15) maintains the idea of fire as the symbol of Yahweh's presence, which occurs in Genesis 15:17; Exodus 3:2. Fire was also associated with the presence of heathen deities: for instance, it was believed to play around a temple of Aphrodite at Aphaca, and around a sacred olive-troe near Tyre (Exodus 13:21 f.*).

Numbers 9:16. covered it: add (with LXX) by day.

Numbers 9:22. a year: literally, days, i.e. an indefinite period.