Numberschapter 12
16 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.
It stands in Has the LORD spoken only by Moses?, verses 1 to 3.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Miriam and Aaron against Moses. They speak against him because of the Ethiopian woman (Zipporah or a second wife. The text does not resolve). ‘Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us?’ The LORD hears. Moses is the meekest man upon the face of the earth. The LORD summons all three to the tabernacle; speaks of Moses' unique ‘mouth to mouth’ relation; and departs in anger. Miriam is leprous, white as snow. Aaron pleads; Moses cries, ‘heal her now, O God, I beseech thee’. She is shut out seven days; the camp does not journey until she is brought in. The chapter defends prophetic humility.
Context
Law · Moses · Numbers overview
The world behind this chapter
Numbers 12The history
The chapter belongs to Moses, and the two who speak against him are his sister and his brother. Miriam had led the women in song at the sea and is called a prophetess, and Aaron was the high priest, so the complaint came from the top of the nation.
The time is shortly after the departure from Sinai, and the place is Hazeroth, where Numbers 11:35 had left the camp.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The stated grievance is a marriage and the real one follows it at once, whether the LORD had spoken only through Moses. Who the Cushite woman was is contested. Cush usually means Nubia, south of Egypt, which would make her an African woman and this a second marriage. Habakkuk also names a Cushan beside Midian, which would allow the reference to be Zipporah, the Midianite wife Moses already had.
What a first hearer knew is the law behind the sentence. Leviticus 13 put the examination of this disease in the hands of the priest, and Leviticus 13:46 put the person outside the camp, so Aaron watched a law he administered fall on his own sister. The picture God uses for her disgrace was a gesture people had seen, a father spitting in his daughter's face, and the shame it carried lasted seven days.
What it meant to them
The camp learned that speaking against the servant of God behind a respectable objection was a serious matter, and that the stroke fell first on the one who spoke first. They also saw that the answer came from God rather than from Moses, who said nothing in his own defence. They watched Moses pray at once for the healing of the sister who had accused him. A nation of hundreds of thousands then waited seven days for one woman before it moved again.
Sources cited
- Timothy R. Ashley, The Book of Numbers (New International Commentary on the Old Testament)
- Gordon J. Wenham, Numbers (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries)
- The chapter's published exposition note on Numbers 12:1-2, written from Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament , and Keil and Delitzsch, *Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch*
- The chapter's published exposition notes on Numbers 12:10-12 and on Numbers 12:13-14, written from John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament , and Matthew Henry, *Commentary on the Whole Bible*
- src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, portion 36
Where the chapter sits
Numbers 12 falls in From Sinai to Kadesh (chapters 11–14). Murmuring over food, Miriam and Aaron against Moses, the twelve spies, the forty-year sentence.
Before it: First census and camp order, chapters 1–10. After it: Wilderness rebellions and instruction, chapters 15–20.
The whole shape of Numbers→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Has the LORD spoken only by Moses?
1. (vv. 1-2)
Numbers 12:1
“Miriam, as a prophetess (compare Exo 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 Num 12:1, and that the punishment Num 12:10 fell on her alone.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Numbers 12:1
“Zipporah, who is here called an Ethiopian, in the Hebrew a Cushite, because she was a Midianite: the word Cush being generally used in scripture, not for Ethiopia properly so called below Egypt, but for Arabia.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Numbers 12:2
“So then in the book of Numbers we find Moses taking an Ethiopian wife—that is to say, one who is dark or black. Because of her Mary and Aaron speak ill of him and say with indignation, "Has the Lord spoken to Moses only? Has he not also spoken to us?" Now on careful consideration the narrative here seems to lack coherence. What has their saying "Has the Lord spoken to Moses only? Has he not also spoken to us?" to do with their indignation about the Ethiopian woman?”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2:1patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Numbers 12:2
“Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not also spoken by us?--The prophetical name and character was bestowed upon Aaron (Ex 4:15, 16) and Miriam (Ex 15:20); and, therefore, they considered the conduct of Moses, in exercising an exclusive authority in this matter, as an encroachment on their rights (Mic 6:4).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Numbers 12:2
“For, as the quarrel seems to be about his marrying a stranger, it is probable it was a fresh occasion about which they contended. And it was lawful for him as well as any other to marry an Ethiopian or Arabian woman, provided she were, a sincere proselyte.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The stated grievance is a marriage and the question in verse 2 is authority, hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses. Who the woman was is disputed, John Gill setting out the reading that Cush stands for Arabia and the wife is Zipporah the Midianite, while Keil and Delitzsch take her as a Cushite distinct from Zipporah. Miriam is named before Aaron and the Hebrew verb behind spake is singular and feminine, which is why Albert Barnes reads her as the mover and points to verse 10, where the stroke falls on her alone. The closing clause, and the Lord heard it, is the clause that opened the complaining at 11:1.
2. (v. 3)
Numbers 12:3
Moreover, Moses himself, in spite of all the great and splendid achievements of faith and patience that are recorded of him, was never so highly praised by God as on this occasion when he took the Ethiopian wife. It is said of him, in reference to this: "Moses was a man exceeding meek above all men that are upon earth."
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2:1patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Numbers 12:3
“Now the man Moses was very meek - How could Moses, who certainly was as humble and modest as he was meek, write this encomium upon himself? I think the word is not rightly understood; ענו anav, which we translate meek, comes from ענה anah, to act upon, to humble, depress, afflict, and is translated so in many places in the Old Testament; and in this sense it should be understood here: “Now this man Moses was depressed or afflicted more than any man האדמה haadamah, of that land.” And why was he so?”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Numbers 12:3
“Meek - This is added as the reason why Moses took no notice of their reproach, and why God did so severely plead his cause. Thus was he fitted for the work he was called to, which required all the meekness he had.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
A book ascribed to Moses carries a sentence in praise of Moses, and the King James translators set it inside brackets. Two positions are held on it, that a later hand added the line, and that Moses wrote down what he was given to write about himself, and the verse settles neither. Adam Clarke goes a third way through the word itself, arguing that anav carries the sense of afflicted or depressed rather than modest, so the line reports what Moses bore rather than what he claimed. What the sentence is doing in the argument is plain enough, since the man who says nothing in his own defence through the whole chapter has his case answered for him at verse 8.
B. Mouth to mouth, not in dark sayings
1. (vv. 4-5)
Numbers 12:4
“Judges of old sat in the gate of the city to try causes, and so on this occasion the shechinah in the cloud of glory stood at the door of the tabernacle, and Aaron and Miriam, as delinquents, were called to the bar.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 12:5
“The Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud,....”
Suddenly is the word Adam Clarke fastens on, since no interval is left for the complaint to spread or for the three to prepare an account of it. All three are summoned to the door of the tent and the pillar comes down and stands there, which Matthew Henry compares to a judge taking his seat in the gate of a city where causes were tried. Moses is called out with the other two and is never asked to speak.
2. (vv. 6-7)
Numbers 12:7
Moses was called "faithful in all God's house." God used him to bring his judgment on Egypt with scourges and torments. Yet even he, despite the great glory he was given, did not boast. But when he was granted an oracle from the bush, he said, "Who am I that you send me? I have a feeble voice and a slow tongue." And again he says, "I am but steam from a pot."
Clement of Rome· written before 99· LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 17patristic
Vision and dream are named as the ordinary channels, and the words fix what a prophet in Israel is before the exception is stated. Moses is set outside that class in one clause, faithful in all mine house, and the word behind faithful, neeman, is used of a trusted steward or superintendent, as Adam Clarke shows from 1 Samuel 3:20. Hebrews 3:2 and 3:5 quote this verse and then draw a line the Old Testament had not drawn, that Moses was faithful as a servant in the house while Christ is a son over it.
3. (vv. 8-9)
Numbers 12:8
“Dark speeches - Not in parables, similitudes, dark resemblances; as by shewing a boiling pot, an almond tree, &c. to Jeremiah, a chariot with wheels, &c. to Ezekiel. The similitude - Not the face or essence of God, which no man can see and live, Exod. xxxiii, 20, but some singular manifestation of his glorious presence, as Exod. xxxiii, 11, 20.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Numbers 12:9
“He departed - From the door of the tabernacle, in token of his great displeasure, not waiting for their answer. The removal of God~s presence from us, is the saddest token of his displeasure. And he never departs, till we by our sin and folly drive him from us.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Mouth to mouth stands against vision and dream, and Exodus 33:11 says the same thing as face to face, while Exodus 33:20 says no man shall see God and live. Older readers hold those together by taking the similitude of the Lord as a manifestation of glory rather than the divine essence, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that the clause reads with the phrase before it, which removes the appearance of a clash with Deuteronomy 4:15. The charge at the end of the verse is about fear rather than rank, wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses. The anger is kindled and he departed, and that withdrawal comes before any symptom appears.
C. Miriam white as snow, shut out seven days
1. (vv. 10-12)
Numbers 12:10
“Miriam became leprous--This malady in its most malignant form (Ex 4:6; 2Ki 5:27) as its color, combined with its sudden appearance, proved, was inflicted as a divine judgment; and she was made the victim, either because of her extreme violence or because the leprosy on Aaron would have interrupted or dishonored the holy service.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Numbers 12:11
“Repentance is the unsaying of that which we have said amiss, and it had better be unsaid than that we be undone by it. He begs Moses's pardon: Lay not this sin upon us. Aaron was to bring his gift to the altar, but, knowing that his brother had something against him, he of all men was concerned to reconcile himself to his brother, that he might be qualified to offer his gift.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 12:11
“Lay not the sin - Let not the guilt and punishment of this sin rest upon us, upon her in this kind, upon me in any other kind, but pray to God for the pardon and removal of it.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Numbers 12:12
“As one dead - Because part of her flesh was putrefied and dead, and not to be restored but by the mighty power of God. Like a still-born child, that hath been for some time dead in the womb, which when it comes forth, is putrefied, and part of it consumed.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The cloud lifts and the leprosy is there in the same verse, which continues the sequence the book has been setting, complaining answered by fire at 11:1, craving answered by plague at 11:33, and speech against Moses answered here. Miriam alone is struck though Aaron spoke too, and the text gives no reason, so the commentators supply one, Gill and Henry pointing to the priesthood a leprous man could not have served. Aaron is the man Leviticus 13 appoints to look at a plague and pronounce on it, and here he looks at his sister and can only ask Moses to plead. His words in verse 12 describe a stillbirth, flesh half consumed, which is what the disease was taken to be doing to her.
2. (vv. 13-14)
Numbers 12:13
“So Miriam here was healed by the prayer of Moses, whom she had abused, and Abimelech by the prayer of Abraham, Gen. xx. Moses might have stood off, and have said, "She is served well enough, let her govern her tongue better next time;" but, not content with being able to say that he had not prayed for the inflicting of the judgment, he prays earnestly for the removal of it.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 12:14
“If her father had but spit in her face - This appears to have been done only in cases of great provocation on the part of the child, and strong irritation on the side of the parent. Spitting in the face was a sign of the deepest contempt. See Job 30:10; Isa 50:6; Mar 14:65. In a case where a parent was obliged by the disobedient conduct of his child to treat him in this way, it appears he was banished from the father’s presence for seven days.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The prayer runs to five words in the Hebrew and the man praying it is the man who was spoken against. The answer is a delay rather than a refusal, and its measure is a domestic one, the shame of a daughter whose father has spat in her face, which stands seven days. Leviticus 13:46 had already put the leper outside the camp, so the sentence applies a law that Miriam's own brother administers.
3. (vv. 15-16)
Numbers 12:15
“Journeyed not - Which was a testimony of respect to her both from God and from the people, God so ordering it, partly lest she should be overwhelmed by such a publick rebuke from God, and partly lest, she being a prophetess, the gift of prophesy should come into contempt.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Numbers 12:16
“The wilderness of Paran - This could not be the same Paran with that mentioned Deu 1:1, for that was on the borders of the promised land, see the note on Deu 1:1, Deu 1:2; they were long near the borders of Canaan, and might have speedily entered into it, had it not been for their provocations and iniquities. They spent thirty-eight years in a journey which might have been accomplished in a few weeks!”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
A nation of hundreds of thousands stays where it stands for seven days until one woman is brought back in. Deuteronomy 24:9 turns the week into a standing command, remember what the Lord thy God did unto Miriam by the way, and it is given inside the law of leprosy rather than as a story. Micah 6:4 names her with Moses and Aaron among those God sent before Israel, which is the weight she carries in the canon after this chapter. Verse 16 sets the camp in the wilderness of Paran, and chapter 13 sends the spies out from there.
This page carries no textual note on Numbers 12. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.