File:Miriam as a leper.jpg

Summary
Numbers 12:1 - 12:15

'Miriam and Aaron murmur against Moses, whom God praises above other prophets. Miriam being struck with leprosy, Aaron confesses his fault. Moses prays for her, and after seven days' separation from the camp, she is restored.'

12:1. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, because of his wife, the Ethiopian,

Moses had married an Ethiopian wife on one of his escapades with the Egyptian army, as related by Josephus. (Antiquities of the Jews, Page 61.) '''

'''12:2. They said: Has the Lord spoken by Moses only? Has he not also spoken to us in like manner? When the Lord heard this,'''



12:3. (for Moses was a man exceedingly meek above all men that dwelt upon earth)

Exceedingly meek. . .Moses being the meekest of men, would not contend for himself; therefore, God inspired him to write here his own defense: and the Holy Spirit, whose dictate he wrote, obliged him to declare the truth, though it was so much to his own praise.

'''12:4. Immediately he spoke to him, and to Aaron and Miriam: Come out you three only to the tabernacle of the covenant. When they came out,'''

'''12:5. The Lord came down in a pillar of the cloud, and stood in the entry of the tabernacle calling to Aaron and Miriam. When they came,'''

12:6. He said to them: Hear my words: if there be among you a prophet of the Lord, I will appear to him in a vision, or I will speak to him in a dream.

12:7. But it is not so with my servant Moses who is most faithful in all my house:

'''12:8. For I speak to him mouth to mouth: and plainly, and not by riddles and figures does he see the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak ill of my servant Moses?'''

12:9. Being angry with them he went away:



'''12:10. The cloud also that was over the tabernacle departed: and behold Miriam appeared white as snow with a leprosy. When Aaron had looked on her, and saw her all covered with leprosy,'''

12:11. He said to Moses: I beseech you, my lord, lay not upon us this sin, which we have foolishly committed:

'''12:12. Let her not be as one dead, and as an abortive that is cast forth from the mother's womb. Lo, now one half of her flesh is consumed with the leprosy.'''

12:13. Moses cried to the Lord, saying: O God, I beseech You, heal her.

'''12:14. The Lord answered him: If her father had spitten upon her face, ought she not to have been ashamed for seven days at least? Let her be separated seven days without the camp, and afterwards she shall be called again.'''

12:15. Miriam therefore was put out of the camp seven days: and the people moved not from that place until Miriam was called again.