Numbers

Moses and his Brother and Sister

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married,

and they said:

“Has the Lord only spoken through Moses? Has he not also spoken through us?”

And the Lord heard.

Moses was a very humble man, more humble than any man on the face of the earth.

Yet suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam:

“Come out, all three of you, to the Tent of Meeting.” The three of them came out.

The Lord came down in the pillar of cloud and, standing at the door of the Tent, called Aaron and Miriam.

They both went out, and

he said:

“Listen carefully to what I say: If there is a prophet among you, I reveal myself to him in a vision and I speak to him in a dream.

It is not so for my servant, Moses, my trusted steward in all my household.

To him, I speak face to face, openly, and not in riddles, and he sees the presence of the Lord. Why did you not fear speaking against my servant, against Moses?”

The Lord became angry with them, and he departed.

The cloud moved away from above the Tent, and Miriam was there, white as snow with leprosy. Aaron turned towards Miriam, seeing that she was leprous.

And he said to Moses:

“My lord, I beg you, do not charge us with this sin that we have foolishly committed.

Let her not be like the stillborn whose flesh is half-eaten when it comes from its mother’s womb.”

Moses cried to the Lord:

“Heal her, O God, I beg of you.”

But the Lord said to Moses:

“If her father spat in her face, would she not hide in shame for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; only then shall she be admitted again.”

And so Miriam was confined for seven days outside the camp, and the people did not move on until she had been readmitted.

After that, the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.