Those who were unclean because of a dead body or were on a journey could keep the Passover in the second month on the fourteenth day at twilight. The text also states that anyone who was clean and not traveling but neglected the Passover would be cut off. See Numbers 9:9–14.
In Numbers 9:9–14, Yahweh gives Moses a clear rule for people who miss Passover for specific reasons. If someone is made unclean by contact with a dead body or is away on a distant trip, he is still expected to keep Passover, but one month later. The make-up observance must follow the same core instructions. This unit comes as a direct instruction from Yahweh to Moses, framed as something to be announced to the whole people. It fits the broader flow in Numbers where the community’s worship calendar and camp life are being regulated while they live in a mobile setting.
Numbers 9:9–14 presents a rule given by Yahweh through Moses for a required communal act (Passover) when timely participation is blocked. The passage makes room for unavoidable barriers—contact with a dead body or being away on a distant trip—without treating those barriers as permanent exclusion.
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Numbers 9:9-14, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
9Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
10Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your generations shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be on a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the Passover to Yahweh.
11In the second month on the fourteenth day at even they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs:
12they shall leave none of it to the morning, nor break a bone of it: according to all the statute of the Passover they shall keep it.
13But the man who is clean, and is not on a journey, and forbears to keep the Passover, that soul shall be cut off from his people; because he didn`t offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.
14If a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the Passover to Yahweh; according to the statute of the Passover, and according to the ordinance of it, so shall he do: you shall have one statute, both for the sojourner, and for him who is born in the land.