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The Murmuring of Miriam and Aaron

¹ Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a ^(C1)Cushite woman);^2 (C1)and they said, "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?" And the LORD heard it.³ (Now the man Moses was ^(C1)very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)⁴ Suddenly the LORD said to Moses and Aaron and to Miriam, "You three come out to the tent of meeting." So the three of them came out.^5 (C1)Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called ^(F1)Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward,⁶ He said,

"Hear now My words:
If there is a prophet among you,
I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a ^(C1)vision.
I shall speak with him in a ^(C2)dream.

⁷ "Not so, with ^(C1)My servant Moses,
^(C2)He is faithful in all My household;

^8 (C1)With him I speak mouth to mouth,
Even openly, and not in dark sayings,
And he beholds ^(C2)the form of the LORD.
Why then were you not afraid
To speak against My servant, against Moses?"

⁹ So the anger of the LORD burned against them and ^(C1)He departed.¹⁰ But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, ^(C1)Miriam was leprous, as ^(C2)white as snow. As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous.¹¹ Then Aaron said to Moses, "Oh, my lord, I beg you, ^(C1)do not account this sin to us, in which we have acted foolishly and in which we have sinned.¹² "Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother's womb!"¹³ Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "O God, ^(C1)heal her, I pray!"¹⁴ But the LORD said to Moses, "If her father had but ^(C1)spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days ^(C2)outside the camp, and afterward she may be received again."¹⁵ So ^(C1)Miriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again.

¹⁶ Afterward, however, the people moved out from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.