NUMBERS 12

Now Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman. 2 And they said, Is it a fact that Yehowah has spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken also through us? And Yehowah heard them. 3 Now the man Moses was very devout, more than any man who was on the face of the earth. 4 And suddenly Yehowah spoke to Moses, and to Aaron and Miriam, Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting. And the three of them came out. 5 And Yehowah came down in the pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the tent; and he called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. 6 And he said, Hear now my words:

If there is a prophet among you,* I, Yehowah, reveal myself to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream. 7 Not so with my servant Moses;

he is faithful over all my house. 8 I speak with him face to face,** plainly and not in riddles;

and he looks on the form of Yehowah. * As Vg; MT your prophet ** lit mouth to mouth

Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?

9 And Yehowah's anger flared up against them, and he departed; 10 and when the cloud was lifted from over the tent, Miriam was defiled with a skin disease, like snow; and Aaron turned to Miriam and saw that she was defiled. 11 Then Aaron said to Moses, Alas, my lord, please do not punish us for the sin through which we have acted foolishly and have sinned. 12 Do not let her be like someone dead, whose flesh was half consumed when he came out of his mother's womb. 13 And Moses cried to Yehowah, and said, O God, heal her now, I pray. 14 But Yehowah said to Moses, If her father had merely spat in her face, would she not be a thing of shame for seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp for seven days, then after that let her be allowed in. 15 So Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days; and the people did not set out till Miriam was allowed in. 16 And after that the people set out from Hazeroth, and camped in the desert of Paran.