Numbers 12:12

New King James Version

Please do not let her be as one dead, whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother's womb!"

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
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.

King James Version
Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother's womb.

Lexham English Bible
Please do not let her be like the dead, whose flesh is half consumed when coming out from the womb of its mother."

New Century Version
Don't let her be like a baby who is born dead. (Sometimes a baby is born with half of its flesh eaten away.)"

New English Translation
Do not let her be like a baby born dead, whose flesh is half-consumed when it comes out of its mother's womb!"

Amplified Bible
"Oh, do not let her be like one dead, already half decomposed when he comes from his mother's womb."

New American Standard Bible
"Oh, do not let her be like a dead person, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother's womb!"

Geneva Bible (1587)
Let her not, I pray thee, be as one dead, of whome the flesh is halfe consumed, when he commeth out of his mothers wombe.

Legacy Standard Bible
Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother's womb!"

Contemporary English Version
Don't let Miriam's flesh rot away like a child born dead!"

Complete Jewish Bible
Please don't let her be like a stillborn baby, with its body half eaten away when it comes out of its mother's womb!"

Darby Translation
Let her not be as one stillborn, half of whose flesh is consumed when he comes out of his mother's womb.

Easy-to-Read Version
Don't let her lose her skin like a baby who is born dead." (Sometimes a baby will be born like that, with half of its skin eaten away.)

English Standard Version
Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother's womb."

George Lamsa Translation
Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mothers womb.

Good News Translation
Don't let her become like something born dead with half its flesh eaten away."

Christian Standard Bible®
Please don’t let her be like a dead baby whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

Literal Translation
I pray, do not let her be as one who is dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother's womb.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
that she be not as one that commeth deed out of his mothers wombe: It hath eaten vp half hir flesh allready.

American Standard Version
Let her not, I pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother's womb.

Bible in Basic English
Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half wasted when he comes out from the body of his mother.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Oh, let her not be as one dead, of who the fleshe is halfe consumed when he commeth out of his mothers whom.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Let her not, I pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother's womb.'

King James Version (1611)
Let her not bee as one dead, of whom the flesh is halfe consumed, when he commeth out of his mothers wombe.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Let her not be as it were like death, as an abortion coming out of his mother’s womb, when the disease devours the half of the flesh.

English Revised Version
Let her not, I pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother's womb.

Berean Standard Bible
Please do not let her be like a stillborn infant whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother's womb."

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
which we diden folili, that this womman be not maad as deed, and as a deed borun thing which is cast out of the `wombe of his modir; lo! now the half of hir fleisch is deuourid with lepre.

Young's Literal Translation
let her not, I pray thee, be as [one] dead, when in his coming out from the womb of his mother -- the half of his flesh is consumed.'

Update Bible Version
Don't let her, I pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother's womb.

Webster's Bible Translation
Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed at the time of his birth.

World English Bible
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.

New Living Translation
Don't let her be like a stillborn baby, already decayed at birth."

New Life Bible
Let her not be like one who is dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he is born!"‘

New Revised Standard
Do not let her be like one stillborn, whose flesh is half consumed when it comes out of its mother's womb."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Let her not, I beseech thee, remain like the still-born, - which when it is born of its mother, the half of its flesh is consumed.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Let her not be as one dead, and as an abortive that is cast forth from the mother’s womb. Lo, now one half of her flesh is consumed with the leprosy.

Revised Standard Version
Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother's womb."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother's womb!"

Contextual Overview

¹⁰ And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, as white as snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and there she was, a leper. ¹¹ So Aaron said to Moses, "Oh, my lord! Please do not lay this sin on us, in which we have done foolishly and in which we have sinned. ¹² Please do not let her be as one dead, whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother's womb!" ¹³ So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "Please heal her, O God, I pray!" ¹⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, "If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and afterward she may be received again." ¹⁵ So Miriam was shut out of the camp seven days, and the people did not journey till Miriam was brought in again. ¹⁶ And afterward the people moved from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

as one dead: Psalms 88:4, Psalms 88:5, Ephesians 2:1-5, Colossians 2:13, 1 Timothy 5:6

of whom: Job 3:16, Psalms 58:8, 1 Corinthians 15:8

Reciprocal: Leviticus 13:2 - the plague of leprosy Job 13:28 - And he

Cross-References

Genesis 12:8
And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.

Genesis 12:10
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.

Genesis 20:11
And Abraham said, "Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife.

Genesis 26:7
And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, "She is my sister"; for he was afraid to say, "She is my wife," because he thought, "lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold."

1 Samuel 27:1
And David said in his heart, "Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand."

Proverbs 29:25
The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.

Matthew 10:28
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Let her not be as one dead,.... As she was in a ceremonial sense, being to be shut up and excluded from the society of people, and as defiling by touching as a dead carcase; and, in a natural sense, her flesh, by the disease upon her, was become as dead flesh, putrid and rotten, and unless miraculously cured it would issue in her death:

of whom the flesh is half consumed, when he cometh out of his mother's womb; like an abortive, or one stillborn, that has been dead some time in its mother's womb; and therefore when brought forth its flesh is almost wasted away, or at least half consumed: and in such a plight and condition was Miriam already, or quickly would be, through the force of her disease.

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?