Numbers 12:1–15

Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses

12Miriam^d and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife,^e for he had married a Cushite. ²“Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?”^f And the Lord heard this.^g

³(Now Moses was a very humble man,^h more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)

⁴At 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. ⁵Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud;ⁱ he stood at the entrance to the tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them stepped forward, ⁶he said, “Listen to my words:

“When there is a prophet among you,

I, the Lord, reveal^j myself to them in visions,^k

I speak to them in dreams.^l

⁷But this is not true of my servant Moses;^m

he is faithful in all my house.ⁿ

⁸With him I speak face to face,

clearly and not in riddles;^o

he sees the form of the Lord.^p

Why then were you not afraid

to speak against my servant Moses?”^q

⁹The anger of the Lord burned against them,^r and he left them.^s

¹⁰When the cloud lifted from above the tent,^t Miriam’s skin was leprous^a—it became as white as snow.^u Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had a defiling skin disease,^{v 11}and he said to Moses, “Please, my lord, I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed.^{w 12}Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.”

¹³So Moses cried out to the Lord, “Please, God, heal her!^x”

¹⁴The Lord replied to Moses, “If her father had spit in her face,^y would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp^z for seven days; after that she can be brought back.” ¹⁵So Miriam was confined outside the camp^a for seven days,^b and the people did not move on till she was brought back.