Numbers 12
They Spoke Against Him, and He Prayed for Them
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The Condemnation
12:1Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman Moses had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
12:2They said, “Has the Lord spoken only to Moses? Has He not also spoken to us?” And the Lord heard.
12:3Now the man Moses was very gentle, more than all the people on the earth.
The Vindication
12:4Immediately the Lord said to Moses, Miriam, and Aaron, “Come out, all three of you, to the Tent of Testimony.” And the three came out to the Tent of Testimony.
12:5The Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the Tent of Testimony. Aaron and Miriam were called, and both came forward.
12:6He said to them, “Hear My words: If there is a prophet of yours for the Lord, I will make Myself known to him in a vision, and speak to him in sleep.
12:7Not so My attendant Moses; he is faithful in all My house.
12:8With him I will speak mouth to mouth, in visible appearance and not through riddles, and he saw the Lord’s glory. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My attendant Moses?”
The Judgment
12:9The Lord’s fierce anger was upon them, and He departed.
12:10The cloud withdrew from the tent, and there was Miriam, leprous as snow. Aaron looked at Miriam, and there she was, leprous.
12:11Aaron said to Moses, “I beg you, my lord, do not lay sin upon us, because we acted ignorantly in what we sinned.
12:12Do not let her become like one equal to death, like a miscarried child coming out of a mother’s womb, and it consumes half her flesh.”
12:13Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “O God, I beg You, heal her!”
The Restoration
12:14The Lord said to Moses, “If her father had spat in her face, would she not be ashamed for seven days? Let her be set apart outside the camp for seven days; afterward she shall enter.”
12:15Miriam was set apart outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not set out until Miriam was cleansed.
12:16Afterward the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.