Numbers - The Old Testament

¹ Miriam, and Aaron too, criticised Moses over the Cushite woman he had married. He had indeed married a Cushite woman.

² They said, 'Is Moses the only one through whom Yahweh has spoken? Has he not spoken through us too?' Yahweh heard this.

³ Now Moses was extremely humble, the humblest man on earth.

⁴ Suddenly Yahweh said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, 'Come out, all three of you, to the Tent of Meeting.' They went, all three of them,

⁵ and Yahweh descended in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the Tent. He called Aaron and Miriam and they both came forward.

⁶ Yahweh said: Listen to my words! if there is a prophet among you, I reveal myself to him in a vision, I speak to him in a dream.

⁷ Not so with my servant Moses; to him my whole household is entrusted;

⁸ to him I speak face to face, plainly and not in riddles, and he sees Yahweh's form. How, then, could you dare to criticise my servant Moses?

⁹ Yahweh's anger was aroused by them. He went away,

¹⁰ and as soon as the cloud left the Tent, there was Miriam covered with a virulent skin-disease, white as snow! Aaron turned to look at her and saw that she had contracted a virulent skin-disease.

¹¹ Aaron said to Moses: 'Oh, my Lord, please do not punish us for the sin we have been foolish enough to commit.

¹² Do not let her be like some monster with its flesh half eaten away when it leaves its mother's womb!'

¹³ Moses pleaded with Yahweh. 'O God,' he said, 'I beg you, please heal her!'

¹⁴ Yahweh then said to Moses, 'If her father had done no more than spit in her face, would she not be unclean for seven days? Have her shut out of the camp for seven days, and then have her brought in again.'

¹⁵ Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days. The people did not set out until she returned.

¹⁶ Then the people moved on from Hazeroth and pitched camp in the desert of Paran.