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.
And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.
And they said, Has Jehovah indeed spoken only with Moses? Has he not spoken also with us? And Jehovah 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 meek, above all the men who were upon the face 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.
And Jehovah spoke suddenly to Moses, and to Aaron, and to Miriam, Come out ye three to the tent of meeting. And the three 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.
And Jehovah came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both came forth.
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.
And he said, Hear now my words. If there be a prophet among you, I Jehovah 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 manifestly, and not in dark speeches, and he has beheld the form of Jehovah. Why then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?
9 Yahweh was very angry with Miriam and Aaron, and he left.
And the anger of Jehovah 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.
And the cloud removed from over the tent. And, behold, Miriam was leprous, as snow. And Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous.
11 Aaron said to Moses/me, “My master, please do not punish us for this sin that we have foolishly committed.
And Aaron said to Moses, Oh, my lord, lay not, I pray thee, sin upon 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!”
And Moses cried to Jehovah, saying, Heal her, O God, I beseech thee.
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.”
And Jehovah said to Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut up outside 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.
And Miriam was shut up outside the camp seven days. And the people journeyed not till 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.
And afterward the people journeyed from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.
