Numbers 12
1 [Moses’/My older sister] Miriam and [his/my older brother] Aaron were saying this: “Is Moses the only one to whom Yahweh has spoken messages to tell to us [RHQ]? Does Yahweh not speak messages to us two also?” [They told people that] they were saying that because Moses/I had married a woman who was a descendant of the Cush people-group, [but they were really saying that because they (were jealous/did not want Moses/me to be the only leader of the Israeli people)]. But Yahweh heard what they were saying.
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.
3 [The truth was that] Moses/I was very humble. He/I was more humble than anyone else on the earth [and Moses/I had not appointed himself/myself to be their leader].
Now the man Moses was very humble, above all the men who were on the surface of the earth.
4 So immediately Yahweh spoke to Moses/me and to Aaron and Miriam. He said, “All three of you must go and stand at the Sacred Tent.” So they/we did that.
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.
5 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.
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.
6 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.
He said, "Hear now 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.
7 But that is not the way I speak to my servant Moses. I trust that he will lead my people [well].
My servant Moses is not so. He is faithful in all my house.
8 So I talk to him face-to-face. I speak to him (clearly/using words that he will understand easily), not using parables. He has even seen what I look like. So you should be afraid to criticize my servant Moses!”
With him I will speak mouth to mouth, even openly, 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?"
9 Yahweh was very angry with Miriam and Aaron, and he left.
The anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed.
10 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.
The cloud departed from over the Tent; and look, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. Aaron looked at Miriam, and look, she was leprous.
11 Aaron said to Moses/me, “My master, please do not punish us for this sin that we have foolishly committed.
Aaron said to Moses, "Oh, my lord, please do not count this sin against us, in which we have done foolishly, and in which we have sinned.
12 Do not allow Miriam to be like a baby that is already dead when it is born, whose flesh is already half decayed!”
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."
13 So Moses/I cried out to Yahweh, saying, “God, I plead with you to heal her!”
Moses cried to the LORD, saying, "Heal her, God, I beg you."
14 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 any more, and] she may return to the camp.”
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."
15 So they sent her outside the camp for seven days. (The people/We) did not move [to another location] until she returned.
Miriam was shut up outside of the camp seven days, and the people did not travel until Miriam was brought in again.
16 But after [she returned], they/we left Hazeroth and moved [north] in the Paran Desert and set up their/our tents there.
Afterward the people traveled from Hazeroth, and camped in the wilderness of Paran.
