The Fourth Book of Moses: Numbers

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- Kapitel 12 -

Moses’ older sister Miriam and his older brother Aaron were jealous of Moses and said, “Is Moses the only one to whom Yahweh has spoken messages to tell to us? Does Yahweh not speak messages through us two also?”

They also criticized Moses because he had married a woman who was a descendant of the Cush people group. And Yahweh heard Miriam and Aaron complaining about Moses.

The truth was that Moses was a very humble person. He was more humble than anyone else on the earth.

So immediately Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam. He said, “All three of you must go and stand at the sacred tent.” So they did that.

Then Yahweh descended to the entrance of the tent in a cloud that resembled a huge white pillar. He told Aaron and Miriam to step forward, so they did.

Then he said to them, “Listen to me! When a prophet is among you, I usually reveal myself to him by allowing him to see visions, and I speak to him in dreams.

But that is not the way I speak to my servant Moses. I trust that he will lead my people well.

So I talk to him face to face. I speak to him clearly, not using parables. He has even seen what I look like. So you should be afraid to criticize my servant Moses!”

Yahweh was very angry with Miriam and Aaron, and he left.

When the cloud rose up from the sacred tent, Aaron looked at Miriam, and he saw that her skin was as white as snow, because she now had leprosy.

Aaron said to Moses, “My master, please do not punish us for this sin that we have foolishly committed.

Do not allow Miriam to be like a baby that is already dead when it is born, whose flesh is already half decayed!”

So Moses cried out to Yahweh, saying, “God, I plead with you to heal her!”

But Yahweh replied, “If her father had rebuked her for doing something wrong by spitting in her face, she would have been ashamed for seven days. She should be ashamed because of what she has done. So send her outside the camp for seven days. Then she will not have leprosy anymore, and she may return to the camp.”

So they sent her outside the camp for seven days. The people did not move to another location until she returned.

But after she returned, they left Hazeroth and moved north in the Paran Desert and set up their tents there.

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.

They said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only with Moses? Hasn’t he spoken also with us?” And the LORD heard it.

Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the surface of the earth.

The LORD spoke suddenly to Moses, to Aaron, and to Miriam, “You three come out to the Tent of Meeting!” The three of them came out.

The LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward.

He said, “Now hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream.

My servant Moses is not so. He is faithful in all my house.

With him, I will speak mouth to mouth, even plainly, and not in riddles; and he shall see the LORD’s form. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?”

The LORD’s anger burned against them; and he departed.

The cloud departed from over the Tent; and behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. Aaron looked at Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.

Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, please don’t count this sin against us, in which we have done foolishly, and in which we have sinned.

Let her not, I pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

Moses cried to the LORD, saying, “Heal her, God, I beg you!”

The LORD said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, shouldn’t she be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut up outside of the camp seven days, and after that she shall be brought in again.”

Miriam was shut up outside of the camp seven days, and the people didn’t travel until Miriam was brought in again.

Afterward the people traveled from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.