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New American Standard Bible
Numbers 12:1
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Afterward Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses, because of the woman of Ethiopia whome hee had maried (for hee had married a woman of Ethiopia)
AND Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
Miryam and Aharon spoke against Moshe because of the Kushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Kushite woman.
Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses. They criticized him because he married an Ethiopian woman.
Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.
And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.
Now Miriam and Aaron said evil against Moses, because of the Cushite woman to whom he was married, for he had taken a Cushite woman as his wife.
Although Moses was the most humble person in all the world, Miriam and Aaron started complaining, "Moses had no right to marry that woman from Ethiopia! Who does he think he is? The Lord has spoken to us, not just to him." The Lord heard their complaint
Miryam and Aharon began criticizing Moshe on account of the Ethiopian woman he had married, for he had in fact married an Ethiopian woman.
And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.
And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses, because of the Ethiophian woman, whom hee had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
Now Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a Cushite woman);
And Mariam and Aaron spoke against Moses, because of the Ethiopian woman whom Moses took; for he had taken an Ethiopian woman.
And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married: for he had married a Cushite woman.
Then Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married, for he had taken a Cushite wife.
And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he took (because he took a Cushite wife);
And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, because of the Cushite woman whom he had taken. For he had taken a Cushite woman.
Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife (he had married a Cushite).
Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married (for he had married an Ethiopian woman).
Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
While they were at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because he had married a Cushite woman.
Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite woman.
And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses, on account of the Cushite woman whom he had taken, - for, a Cushite woman, had he taken.
And Mary and Aaron spoke against Moses, because of his wife the Ethiopian,
Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman;
Moses had married a Cushite woman, and Miriam and Aaron criticized him for it.
And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had taken; for he had taken a Cushite as wife.
And Marie spak and Aaron ayens Moises, for his wijf a womman of Ethiope,
And Miriam speaketh -- Aaron also -- against Moses concerning the circumstance of the Cushite woman whom he had taken: for a Cushite woman he had taken;
Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.
And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.
And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married: for he had married a Cushite woman.
And Miriam and Aaron spake agaynst Moyses, because of the women of Ethiopia whiche he had taken: for he had take to wife one of Ethiopia.
Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite woman he married (for he had married a Cushite woman).
And Miriam & Aaron spake agaynst Moses because of his wife the Morian which he had taken, because he had take a Morian to wife,
Miriam and Aaron talked against Moses behind his back because of his Cushite wife (he had married a Cushite woman). They said, "Is it only through Moses that God speaks? Doesn't he also speak through us?" God overheard their talk.
While they were at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had indeed married a Cushite woman);
Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a Cushite woman);
Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had taken as a wife (for he had taken a Cushite woman);
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Miriam: Matthew 10:36, Matthew 12:48, John 7:5, John 15:20, Galatians 4:16
Ethiopian: or, Cushite, Exodus 2:16, Exodus 2:21
married: Heb. taken, Genesis 24:3, Genesis 24:37, Genesis 26:34, Genesis 26:35, Genesis 27:46, Genesis 28:6-9, Genesis 34:14, Genesis 34:15, Genesis 41:45, Exodus 34:16, Leviticus 21:14
Reciprocal: Exodus 2:4 - General Exodus 2:7 - General Exodus 15:20 - sister Numbers 16:3 - gathered Numbers 20:1 - Miriam Isaiah 37:9 - Ethiopia Micah 6:4 - Moses Hebrews 5:2 - is compassed
Cross-References
And I will make you into a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing;
And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."
Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanites were in the land at that time.
Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a time, because the famine was severe in the land.
It came about, when he was approaching Egypt, that he said to his wife Sarai, "See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman;
And He said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it."
"You are the LORD God, Who chose Abram And brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees, And gave him the name Abraham.
You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth And called from its remotest parts, And said to you, 'You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
"Look to Abraham your father And to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain; When he was only one I called him, Then I blessed him and multiplied him."
"Son of man, they who live in these ruins in the land of Israel are saying, 'Abraham was only one, yet he possessed the land; so to us who are many the land has been given as a possession.'
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses,.... Miriam is first mentioned, because she was first in the transgression, and so was only punished; Aaron was drawn into the sin by her, and he acknowledged his fault, and was forgiven: it must be a great trial to Moses, not only to be spoken against by the people, as he often was, but by his near relations, and these gracious persons, and concerned with him in leading and guiding the people through the wilderness, Micah 6:4;
because of the Ethiopian woman, whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman; not a queen of Ethiopia, as the Targum of Jonathan; nor Tharbis, a daughter of a king of Ethiopia, whom Josephus h says he married, when he was sent upon an expedition against the Ethiopians, while he was in Pharaoh's court; nor the widow of an Ethiopian king whom he married after his death, when he fled from Pharaoh into Ethiopia, and was made a king there, as say some Jewish writers i: for there is no reason to believe he was married before he went to Midian; nor was this some Ethiopian woman he had married since, and but lately, Zipporah being dead or divorced, as some have fancied; but it was Zipporah herself, as Aben Ezra, Ben Melech, and so the Jerusalem Targum, which represents her not as truly an Ethiopian, but so called, because she was like to one; indeed she was really one; not a native of Ethiopia, the country of the Abyssines, but she was a Cushite, a native of Arabia Chusea, in which country Midian was, from whence she came; hence the tents, of Cushan, and the curtains of Midian, are spoken of together, Habakkuk 3:7. Now it was not on account of Moses's marriage with her that they spoke against him, for that was an affair transacted in Midian some years ago, which at first sight may seem to be the case; nor because he now had divorced her, as Jarchi, which perhaps would have given them no uneasiness; and for the same reason, not because he abstained from conversation with her, that he might give up himself to the service of God in his house, and perform it in a more holy and faithful manner, which is the common sentiment of the Jewish writers: but rather, as it is thought by others, because of a suspicion they had entertained, that she had interested herself in the affair of the choice of the seventy elders, and had prevailed upon Moses to put in such and such persons into the list she had a mind to serve; at least this seems to be the case, for the displeasure was against Moses himself; they were angry with him, because he transacted that affair without them, and chose whom he pleased, without consulting them; and therefore, though they cared not to ascribe it entirely to him, and his neglect of them, they imputed it to his wife, as if she had over persuaded him, or her brother through her means, to take such a step as he did.
h Antiqu. l. 2. c. 10. sect. 2. i Dibre Hayamim, fol. 7. 2. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 5. 2. so some in Aben Ezra in loc.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Miriam, as a prophetess (compare Exodus 15:20-21) no less than as the sister of Moses and Aaron, took the first rank among the women of Israel; and Aaron may be regarded as the ecclesiastical head of the whole nation. But instead of being grateful for these high dignities they challenged the special vocation of Moses and the exclusive authority which God had assigned to him. Miriam was the instigator, from the fact that her name stands conspicuously first Numbers 12:1, and that the punishment Numbers 12:10 fell on her alone. She probably considered herself as supplanted, and that too by a foreigner. Aaron was misled this time by the urgency of his sister, as once before Exodus 32:0 by that of the people.
Numbers 12:1
The Ethiopian woman whom he had married - (Hebrew, “Cushite,” compare Genesis 2:13; Genesis 10:6) It is likely that Zipporah Exodus 2:21 was dead, and that Miriam in consequence expected to have greater influence than ever with Moses. Her disappointment at his second marriage would consequently be very great.
The marriage of Moses with a woman descended from Ham was not prohibited, so long as she was not of the stock of Canaan (compare Exodus 34:11-16); but it would at any time have been offensive to that intense nationality which characterized the Jews. The Christian fathers note in the successive marriage of Moses with a Midianite and an Ethiopian a foreshadowing of the future extension to the Gentiles of God’s covenant and its promises (compare Psalms 45:9 ff; Song of Solomon 1:4 ff); and in the complaining of Miriam and Aaron a type of the discontent of the Jews because of such extension: compare Luke 15:29-30.
Numbers 12:2
Hath the Lord ... - i. e. Is it merely, after all, by Moses that the Lord hath spoken?
Numbers 12:3
The man Moses was very meek - In this and in other passages in which Moses no less unequivocally records his own faults (compare Numbers 20:12 ff; Exodus 4:24 ff; Deuteronomy 1:37), there is the simplicity of one who bare witness of himself, but not to himself (compare Matthew 11:28-29). The words are inserted to explain how it was that Moses took no steps to vindicate himself, and why consequently the Lord so promptly intervened.
Numbers 12:8
Mouth to mouth - i. e. without the intervention of any third person or thing: compare the marginal references.
Even apparently - Moses received the word of God direct from Him and plainly, not through the medium of dream, vision, parable, dark saying, or such like; compare the marginal references.
The similitude of the Lord shall he behold - But, “No man hath seen God at any time,” says John (John 1:18 : compare 1 Timothy 6:16, and especially Exodus 33:20 ff). It was not therefore the Beatific Vision, the unveiled essence of the Deity, which Moses saw on the one hand. Nor was it, on the other hand, a mere emblematic representation (as in Ezekiel 1:26 ff, Daniel 7:9), or an Angel sent as a messenger. It was the Deity Himself manifesting Himself so as to be cognizable to mortal eye. The special footing on which Moses stood as regards God is here laid down in detail, because it at once demonstrates that the supremacy of Moses rested on the distinct appointment of God, and also that Miriam in contravening that supremacy had incurred the penalty proper to sins against the theocracy.
Numbers 12:12
As one dead - leprosy was nothing short of a living death, a poisoning of the springs, a corrupting of all the humors, of life; a dissolution little by little of the whole body, so that one limb after another actually decayed and fell away. Compare the notes at Leviticus 13:0.
Numbers 12:13
Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee - Others render these words: “Oh not so; heal her now, I beseech Thee.”
Numbers 12:14
If her father ... - i. e. If her earthly parent had treated her with contumely (compare Deuteronomy 25:9) she would feel for a time humiliated, how much more when God has visited her thus?
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER XII
Miriam and Aaron raise a sedition against Moses, because of the
Ethiopian woman he had married, 1,
and through jealousy of his increasing power and authority, 2.
The character of Moses, 3.
Moses, Aaron, and Miriam are suddenly called to the tabernacle, 4.
The Lord appears in the pillar of the cloud, and converses with
them, 5.
Declares his purpose to communicate his will to Moses only, 6-8.
His anger is kindled against Miriam, and she is smitten with
the leprosy, 9, 10.
Aaron deplores his transgression, and entreats for Miriam, 11,12.
Moses intercedes for her, 13.
The Lord requires that she be shut out of the camp for seven
days, 14.
The people rest till she is restored, 15,
and afterwards leave Hazeroth, and pitch in the wilderness of
Paran, 16.
NOTES ON CHAP. XII
Verse Numbers 12:1. Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses — It appears that jealousy of the power and influence of Moses was the real cause of their complaint though his having married an Ethiopian woman - האשה הכשית haishshah haccushith - THAT WOMAN, the Cushite, probably meaning Zipporah, who was an Arab born in the land of Midian - was the ostensible cause.
