Numbers 12 · The Lantern

The Complaint of Miriam and Aaron

And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had taken — for he had taken a Cushite woman.

And they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken also through us?” And the LORD heard.

Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all mankind on the face of the ground.

Finally, though such and so magnificent works of faith and patience of Moses are related, never was he exalted by God with such praises as now, when he took the Ethiopian woman to wife. Now it is said of him, that "Moses was a man exceedingly meek above all men who are upon the earth."

[T]here are men in whom this struggle has ended in success; it was so with Moses, as we know; he was superior both to anger and to desire; the history testifying of him in both respects, that he was meek beyond all men (and by meekness it indicates the absence of all anger and a mind quite devoid of resentment), and that he desired none of those things about which we see the de…

To learn the power of gentleness and restraint, and how virtue alone suffices to render the person who practices it devotedly worthy of those ineffable encomiums, listen to the eulogy bestowed to blessed Moses. The crown was awarded him for this reason: "Moses was the mildest of all people on the earth," Scripture says.

And the LORD said suddenly to Moses and to Aaron and to Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the Tent of Meeting.” And the three of them came out.

And the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and the two of them came out.

And he said, “Hear now my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; in a dream I speak with him.

Not so my servant Moses: in all my house he is faithful.

Mouth to mouth I speak with him, plainly and not in riddles; and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?”

And the anger of the LORD burned against them, and he went away.

And the cloud turned aside from over the tent — and look, Miriam had tzaraath, white as snow. And Aaron turned to Miriam — and look, she had tzaraath.

And Aaron said to Moses, “Please, my lord — do not lay on us the sin that we did foolishly, and by which we have sinned.

Please do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

And Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “O God, please — heal her, please.”

And the LORD said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be disgraced seven days? Let her be shut outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be gathered in again.”

And Miriam was shut outside the camp seven days; and the people did not set out until Miriam was gathered in again.

And afterward the people set out from Hazeroth; and they camped in the wilderness of Paran.

Numbers12

The Complaint of Miriam and Aaron