The Preacher's Bible

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman. ²They said, “Has Jehovah indeed spoken only with Moses? Hasn’t he spoken also with us?” And Jehovah heard it.

³Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the surface of the earth.

⁴Jehovah spoke suddenly to Moses, to Aaron, and to Miriam, “You three come out to the Tent of Meeting!” The three of them came out. ⁵Jehovah came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward. ⁶He said, “Now hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, Jehovah, will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream. ⁷My servant Moses is not so. He is faithful in all my house. ⁸With him, I will speak mouth to mouth, even plainly, and not in riddles; and he shall see Jehovah’s form. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?” ⁹Jehovah’s anger burned against them; and he departed.

¹⁰The cloud departed from over the Tent; and behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. Aaron looked at Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.

¹¹Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, please don’t count this sin against us, in which we have done foolishly, and in which we have sinned. ¹²Let her not, I pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

¹³Moses cried to Jehovah, saying, “Heal her, God, I beg you!”

¹⁴Jehovah said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, shouldn’t she be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut up outside of the camp seven days, and after that she shall be brought in again.”

¹⁵Miriam was shut up outside of the camp seven days, and the people didn’t travel until Miriam was brought in again. ¹⁶Afterward the people traveled from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.