This explanation is from The Torah Portion by Portion by Seymour Rossel. It discusses salient parts of this chapter:
Adonai spoke to Moses in the Sinai wildereness, on the first new moon of the second year after the Exodus from Egypt, saying: Let the Israelite people offer the Passover sacrifice at its set time: you shall offer it on the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, at its set time; you shall offer it in accordance with all its rules and rites.
While the Torah here commands the Israelites to offer the Passover sacrifice one year after the first Passover (the night they were freed from Egypt), it says nothing about the seven-day holiday of Matzot that (Jews) today call Passover. In early Israel, these were two separate holidays (se Emor). The seven days of eating matzah could be celebrated by anyone, at home or while traveling. But, as the law states, the Passover sacrifice could only be brought to the Mishkan on a set date.
This commandment is misplaced. The Passover sacrifice should have come a month before the dedication of the Mishkan. No one knows why the command was misplaced. But the command led to an interesting incident:
There were some people who were unclean [because they had touched] a corpse. [They] could not offer the Passover sacrifice on [the exact] day. [They asked Moses and Aaron.]
“Why must we be forbidden from presenting Adonai’s offering at its set time with the rest of the Israelites?”
Moses said to them,
“Stand by, and let me hear what instructions Adonai gives about you.”
Adonai spoke to Moses, saying: Anyone who is unclean or impure or on a long journey at the set time for Passover can delay the Passover sacrifice by one month. But only for those reasons. If any other person refuses to offer the Passover sacrifice, Adonai will punish that person severely.
Adonai adds that even a stranger living among the Israelites can offer a Passover sacrifice, but it must be according to the same laws all Israelites follow:
“There shall be one law for you, whether stranger or citizen of the country.”
One Law for You
The statement of “one law for you, whether stranger or citizen” became a general rule, since the world ger or “stranger” can also mean “newcomer”. Even now many non-Jews choose to live within the Jewish community. Some follow Jewish laws, and some never do. Some convert to Judaism, and some never do. It makes no difference. Our law is for us and for them. This is hospitality. Rabbi Nathan said that Abraham’s could welcome strangers coming from every direction. And he said we should be like Abraham, welcoming every stranger, treating them as we treat our own family—or even better. There should be “one law”. What is good for us is what we should want for them too.
Of course, the idea that this law is for you, “whether stranger or citizen of the country,” must come from a time when the Israelites were “citizens” in their own “country”.
The Mysterious Cloud
On the day that the Mishkan was set up, the cloud covered the Mishkan, the Tent of the Covenant; and in the evening it rested over the Mishkan, looking like fire until morning. It was always so: the cloud covered it, appearing as fire by night. Whenever the cloud lifted . . . the Israelites would set out [and] where the cloud settled, the Israelites would make camp.
The Torah pictures the cloud over the Mishkan as a sign that Adonai was present. Some modern scholars explain the cloud in another way. By day the smoke from the sacrifices and the burning of incense in the Mishkan would become a cloud that made it difficult for the Israelites to see the Mishkan. At night the smoke from the oil lamps on the Menorah made it seem that the cloud had turned to fire. When it was time to pack up and travel, the priests were among the first to know. They would take down the Mishkan and stop the sacrifices and the burning, and the cloud would “lift” or disappear. Only when they settled in a new place did the cloud “settle” again above the Mishkan. So the people knew that when the cloud “lifted” it was a sign that they were about to travel from one place to another.
Other scholars think that the idea of the cloud by day and the fire by night comes from a later time, when smoke pots were kept burning at the base of two huge pillars of Solomon’s Temple. The smoke pots formed a cloud by day and a cloud of fire by night. the tellers of the different parts of the Torah may have imagined that similar pillars of cloud and fire appeared to the Israelites in the wilderness.
Image from truth2U.org
However we explain the cloud and the fire, the Torah wants us to know that the Israelites were being guided by Adonai, commanded to move when Adonai was ready for them to move, and commanded to settle when Adonai wanted them to settle. Adonai was in charge, and Adonai dwelled among the people in the Israelite camp.
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[Commentary from Pentateuch and Haftarahs, ed. Dr. J.H.Hertz, translation by EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.–Admin1]
Numbers/Bamidbar 9
1-14. THE SECOND PASSOVER
[A supplementary Passover on the same day in the second month for persons prevented by uncleanness and absence from participating in the Paschal sacrifice in Nisan.]
1 YHVH spoke to Moshe in the Wilderness of Sinai,
in the second year of their going-out of the land of Egypt,
at the first New-moon,
saying:
in the first month of the second year. This date is earlier by one month than the date with which the Book of Number opens. “You learn hereby that the narratives of Scripture are not given in strict chronological sequence’ (Sifri). From Exod. XII,25, 5-10, it appears that the Passover there ordained was for celebration after the settlement in Canaan. Special direction was, therefore, required for a Passover in the Wilderness.
2 The Children of Israel are to sacrifice the Passover-offering at its appointed-time:
in its appointed season. ‘Even if the Passover falls on the Sabbath’ (Sifri).
3 on the fourteenth day after this New-moon,
between the setting-times,
you are to sacrifice it at its appointed-time; according to all its laws, according to all its regulations, you are to sacrifice it.
at dusk. Better, towards even (Friedlander); lit. ‘between the two evenings’l see on Exod. XII,6.
4 So Moshe spoke (instructions) to the Children of Israel, to sacrifice the Passover-offering.
5 And they sacrificed the Passover-offering
in the first (New-moon), on the fourteenth day after the New-moon,
between the setting-times,
in the Wilderness of Sinai.
According to all that YHVH had commanded Moshe,
thus did the Children of Israel.
and they kept the passover. According to Tradition, that was the only Paschal sacrifice offered in the Wilderness.
7 those men said to him:
wherefore are we to be kept back? lit. ‘why should we be made less?’ Why should we, owing to accidental and temporary defilement, be made inferior to the rest of Israel by not being able to participate in the Festival celebration?
8 Moshe said to them:
Stand by, and let me hear what YHVH shall command regarding you.
9 YHVH spoke to Moshe, saying:
10 Speak to the Children of Israel, saying:
A man, (any) man when he is tamei by reason of a (dead) person or is on a long journey,
among you or among your generations, and sacrifices a Passover-offering to YHVH:
or be in a journey afar off. So that he cannot reach the Sanctuary in time for the slaughtering of the sacrifice.
11 in the second New-moon, on the fourteenth day, between the setting-times,
he is to sacrifice it; together with matza (and) bitter-herbs they are to eat it.
12 They are not to leave (any) of it until morning,
a bone is not to be broken from it,
according to all the law of the Passover-offering, they are to sacrifice it.
13 But a man who is (ritually) pure, or who has not been on a journey,
and holds back from sacrificing the Passover-offering:
cut off will that person be from his kins people,
for the near-offering of Passover for YHVH he has not brought-near at its appointed-time; his sin he is to bear, that man.
cut off. Not by a human tribunal.
14 Now when a sojourner sojourns with you
and sacrifices a Passover-offering to YHVH,
according to the law of the Passover-offering and according to its regulation,
thus he is to sacrifice (it). One law (alone) is there to be for you, for the sojourner and for the native of the land.
a stranger. Heb. ger; a resident non-Israelite who had become a convert to the religion of Israel, and had undertaken to conform to the laws and precepts of the Torah.
so shall he do. He must observe all the ordinances of the Passover, whether in regard to the first or to the supplementary Passover, even as does a homeborn Israelite.
15-23. THE FIERY CLOUD UPON THE TABERNACLE
This section connects with Exod.XL,34. It was the invariable custom to start on the march when the Cloud rose from the Tabernacle, and to halt when and as long as it rested.
15 Now at the time that the Dwelling was set up,
the cloud covered the Dwelling over the Tent of Testimony,
and after sunset it remained over the Dwelling,
as the appearance of fire, until daybreak.
the cloud covered the tabernacle. As the manifestation of the Divine Presence in the midst of Israel. It covered only the part of it in which the Ark was placed.
at even. The manifestation of the Divine Presence had the appearance of fire.
16 Thus it was regularly:
the cloud would cover it,
an appearance of fire at night.
17 According as the cloud was lifted up from the tent,
after that the Children of Israel would march on,
and in the place that the cloud would take-up-dwelling,
there the Children of Israel would encamp.
and whenever the cloud was taken up. This verse and the following to the end of the chapter are an amplification of Exod. XL,36-8.
18 By order of YHVH, the Children of Israel would march,
and by order of YHVH, they would encamp;
all the days that the cloud dwelt above the Dwelling, they would remain-in-camp.
at the commandment of the LORD. The Israelites were uncertain as to the duration of their sojourn in any place; but, looking upon the Cloud, as the symbol of the Divine Presence, they considered the Cloud’s movements as orders from on High, which they invariably obeyed.
19 Now when the cloud lingered over the Dwelling for many days,
the Children of Israel would keep the charge of YHVH,
and would not march on.
20 At such (times) as the cloud remained for a number of days over the Dwelling,
by order of YHVH they would remain-in-camp,
and by order of YHVH they would march on.
21 At such (times) as the cloud remained from sunset until daybreak,
when the cloud lifted at daybreak, they would march on
. Whether by day or by night,
when the cloud lifted, they would march on.
22 Whether two days or a New-moon or a year-of-days,
when the cloud lingered over the Dwelling, dwelling over it,
the Children of Israel would remain-in-camp, and would not march on; at its lifting-up, they would march on.
23 By order of YHVH they would encamp,
and by order of YHVH they would march;
the charge of YHVH, they would keep,
by order of YHVH,through the hand of Moshe.