Numbers 12

English NASU 1989 - New American Standard Update - Only for Website

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1While they were in Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on the pretext of the marriage he had contracted with a Cushite woman.

2They complained, "Is it through Moses alone that the LORD speaks? Does he not speak through us also?" And the LORD heard this.

3Now, Moses himself was by far the meekest man on the face of the earth.

4So at once the LORD said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam, "Come out, you three, to the meeting tent." And the three of them went.

5Then the LORD came down in the column of cloud, and standing at the entrance of the tent, called Aaron and Miriam. When both came forward,

6he said, "Now listen to the words of the LORD: Should there be a prophet among you, in visions will I reveal myself to him, in dreams will I speak to him;

7Not so with my servant Moses! Throughout my house he bears my trust:

8face to face I speak to him, plainly and not in riddles. The presence of the LORD he beholds. Why, then, did you not fear to speak against my servant Moses?"

9So angry was the LORD against them that when he departed,

10and the cloud withdrew from the tent, there was Miriam, a snow-white leper! When Aaron turned and saw her a leper,

11"Ah, my lord!" he said to Moses, "please do not charge us with the sin that we have foolishly committed!

12Let her not thus be like the stillborn babe that comes forth from its mother's womb with its flesh half consumed."

13Then Moses cried to the LORD, "Please, not this! Pray, heal her!"

14But the LORD answered Moses, "Suppose her father had spit in her face, would she not hide in shame for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; only then may she be brought back."

15So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not start out again until she was brought back.

16After that the people set out from Hazeroth and encamped in the desert of Paran.

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