Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses

¹And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he married, for he had married a Cushite woman.[#Ex 2:21]

²They said, “Has the Lord spoken only by Moses? Has He not spoken also by us?” And the Lord heard it.[#Nu 16:3; #Nu 11:1]

³(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men on the face of the earth.)[#Mt 11:29]

⁴And the Lord spoke at once to Moses and to Aaron and to Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And those three came out.

⁵The Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood in the opening of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward.[#Ex 34:5; Nu 11:25]

⁶He said, “Hear now My word.

If there is a prophet among you,

I the Lord will make Myself known to him in a vision,

and I will speak to him in a dream.

⁷Not so with My servant Moses;[#Ps 105:26]

he is entrusted with all My house.

⁸Face to face I speak with him clearly,[#Dt 34:10]

and not in riddles,

and the likeness of the Lord will he behold.

Then why were you not afraid

to speak against My servant, against Moses?”

⁹And the anger of the Lord burned against them, and He set out.

¹⁰When the cloud went away from over the tabernacle, behold, Miriam became leprous, like snow, and Aaron turned toward Miriam and behold, she was leprous.[#Dt 24:9; #2Ki 5:27]

¹¹Aaron said to Moses, “Alas, my lord, do not lay the sin on us, which we have done foolishly, and which we have sinned.[#2Sa 19:19; 24:10]

¹²Do not let her be as dead, who when he goes out of his mother’s womb half his flesh is eaten.”

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

¹⁴But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and afterward she may be received again.”[#Dt 25:9; Job 30:10]

¹⁵Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days, and the people did not set out until Miriam was brought in again.

¹⁶Afterward the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.[#Nu 11:35; #Nu 10:12]