Numbers 12

Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses

1 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.
2 “Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the LORD heard this.
3 (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)
4 At once the LORD said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, “Come out to the tent of meeting, all three of you.” So the three of them went out.
5 Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them stepped forward,
6 he said, “Listen to my words: “When there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.
7 But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house.
8 With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
9 The anger of the LORD burned against them, and he left them.
10 When the cloud lifted from above the tent, Miriam’s skin was leprous[a] —it became as white as snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had a defiling skin disease,
11 and he said to Moses, “Please, my lord, I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed.
12 Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.”
13 So Moses cried out to the LORD, “Please, God, heal her!”
14 The LORD replied to Moses, “If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.”
15 So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.
16 After that, the people left Hazeroth and encamped in the Desert of Paran.

Cross References 27

  • 1. S Exodus 15:20
  • 2. S Exodus 2:21
  • 3. Numbers 16:3
  • 4. S Numbers 11:1
  • 5. Matthew 11:29
  • 6. S Exodus 13:21; S Numbers 11:25
  • 7. 1 Samuel 3:7,21
  • 8. S Genesis 15:1; Genesis 46:2
  • 9. S Genesis 20:3; Genesis 31:10; 1 Kings 3:5; S Matthew 27:19; Hebrews 1:1
  • 10. Deuteronomy 34:5; Joshua 1:1-2; Psalms 105:26
  • 11. Hebrews 3:2,5
  • 12. Deuteronomy 34:10; Judges 14:12; 1 Kings 10:1; Psalms 49:4; Proverbs 1:6; Daniel 5:12
  • 13. Exodus 20:4; Job 19:26; Psalms 17:15; Psalms 140:13; Isaiah 6:1
  • 14. Exodus 24:2
  • 15. S Exodus 4:14
  • 16. S Genesis 17:22
  • 17. Exodus 40:2
  • 18. S Exodus 4:6; Deuteronomy 24:9
  • 19. S Leviticus 13:11; 2 Kings 5:1,27; 2 Chronicles 16:12; 2 Chronicles 21:12-15; 2 Chronicles 26:19
  • 20. 2 Samuel 19:19; 2 Samuel 24:10
  • 21. Exodus 15:26; Psalms 6:2; Psalms 147:3; Isaiah 1:6; Isaiah 30:26; Isaiah 53:5; Jeremiah 17:14; Hosea 6:1
  • 22. Deuteronomy 25:9; Job 17:6; Job 30:9-10; Isaiah 50:6
  • 23. S Leviticus 13:46; Numbers 5:2-3
  • 24. S Leviticus 14:8
  • 25. S Leviticus 13:4
  • 26. Numbers 11:35
  • 27. Genesis 21:21; Numbers 10:12; Numbers 15:32

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. The Hebrew for "leprous" was used for various diseases affecting the skin.

Numbers 12 Commentaries

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