Numbers 12:10-15
New English Translation
10 After the cloud had departed[a] from above the tent, there was[b] Miriam, leprous[c] like snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and realized[d] that she was leprous.
The Intercession of Moses
11 So Aaron said to Moses, “O my lord,[e] please do not hold this sin against us, in which we have acted foolishly and have sinned! 12 Do not let her be like a baby born dead, whose flesh is half consumed when it comes out of its[f] mother’s womb!”
13 Then Moses cried to the Lord, “Heal her now, O God.”[g] 14 The Lord said to Moses, “If her father had only spit[h] in her face, would she not have been disgraced for seven days? Shut her out from the camp seven days, and afterward she can be brought back in again.”
15 So Miriam was shut outside of the camp for seven days, and the people did not journey on until Miriam was brought back in.[i]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Numbers 12:10 tn The syntax, vav (ו) plus noun first, indicates a circumstantial clause. The translation treats the verb as a perfect. The form could also be a participle, “while it was departing.”
- Numbers 12:10 tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look, behold”) calls for or directs attention. Here it shifts the audience’s focus from the Lord leaving to Miriam’s condition.
- Numbers 12:10 sn The word “leprosy” and “leprous” covers a wide variety of skin diseases, and need not be limited to the actual disease of leprosy known today as Hansen’s disease. The description of it here has to do with snow, either the whiteness or the wetness. If that is the case then there would be open wounds and sores—like Job’s illness (see M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 95-96).
- Numbers 12:10 tn This second use of הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look, behold”) portrays the perspective of Aaron. The first הִנֵּה directed the audience’s attention to Miriam. Now we watch Aaron come to realize the same thing, leading into his plea in the next verse.
- Numbers 12:11 tn The expression בִּי אֲדֹנִי (bi ʾadoni, “O my lord”) shows a good deal of respect for Moses by Aaron. The expression is often used in addressing God.
- Numbers 12:12 tc The words “its mother” and “its flesh” are among the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” According to this tradition the text originally had here “our mother” and “our flesh,” but the ancient scribes changed these pronouns from the first person to the third person. Apparently they were concerned that the image of Moses’ mother giving birth to a baby with physical defects of the sort described here was somehow inappropriate, given the stature and importance of Moses.
- Numbers 12:13 tc Some scholars emend אֵל (ʾel, “God”) to עַל (ʿal, “no”). The effect of this change may be seen in the NAB: “Please, not this! Pray, heal her!”
- Numbers 12:14 tn The infinitive absolute strengthens the modality of the clause, here emphasizing the alternative condition.
- Numbers 12:15 tn The clause has the Niphal infinitive construct after a temporal preposition.
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