Chapter 12

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.

And they said, Have the words of the Lord been given to Moses only? have they not come to us? And the Lord took note of it.

Now the man Moses was more gentle than any other man on earth.

And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam, Come out, you three, to the Tent of meeting. And the three of them went out.

And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, taking his place at the door of the Tent, and made Aaron and Miriam come before him.

And he said, Now give ear to my words: if there is a prophet among you I will give him knowledge of myself in a vision and will let my words come to him in a dream.

My servant Moses is not so; he is true to me in all my house:

With him I will have talk mouth to mouth, openly and not in dark sayings; and with his eyes he will see the form of the Lord: why then had you no fear of saying evil against my servant Moses?

And burning with wrath against them, the Lord went away.

And the cloud was moved from over the Tent; and straight away Miriam became a leper, as white as snow: and Aaron, looking at Miriam, saw that she was a leper.

Then Aaron said to Moses, O my lord, let not our sin be on our heads, for we have done foolishly and are sinners.

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

And Moses, crying to the Lord, said, Let my prayer come before you, O God, and make her well.

And the Lord said to Moses, If her father had put a mark of shame on her, would she not be shamed for seven days? Let her be shut up outside the tent-circle for seven days, and after that she may come in again.

So Miriam was shut up outside the tent-circle for seven days: and the people did not go forward on their journey till Miriam had come in again.

After that, the people went on from Hazeroth and put up their tents in the waste land of Paran.