Chapter 12

The Murmuring of Miriam and Aaron

1 Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a aCushite woman);

2 aand they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?” And the Lord heard it.

3 (Now the man Moses was avery humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)

4 Suddenly the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and to Miriam, “You three come out to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them came out.

5 aThen the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called 1Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward,

6 He said,

“Hear now My words:

If there is a prophet among you,

I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a avision.

I shall speak with him in a bdream.

7 “Not so, with aMy servant Moses,

bHe is faithful in all My household;

8 aWith him I speak mouth to mouth,

Even openly, and not in dark sayings,

And he beholds bthe form of the Lord.

Why then were you not afraid

To speak against My servant, against Moses?”

9 So the anger of the Lord burned against them and aHe departed.

10 But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, aMiriam was leprous, as bwhite as snow. As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous.

11 Then Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, I beg you, ado not account this sin to us, in which we have acted foolishly and in which we have sinned.

12 “Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother’s womb!”

13 Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “O God, aheal her, I pray!”

14 But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but aspit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days boutside the camp, and afterward she may be received again.”

15 So aMiriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again.

16 Afterward, however, the people moved out from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.