Numberschapter 12
16 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Numbers Overview.
Numbers 12 comes from the book that keeps Israel's record of the wilderness years under the name of Moses. It is one of the few places where his own family stands in the foreground, his older sister and his brother, who were leaders in their own right. Israel had already learned that God spoke through prophets. Here the people learn how the LORD ranks the man He had chosen to lead them. Listen for who speaks first and who answers, and for the one line the book gives to the character of Moses. The chapter is short, and it sets a line under every later claim to speak for God.
Context
- Who
- A nation watching its two most senior figures speak against the third, who was their own brother
- What
- A narrative of a challenge to Moses from his own sister and brother, and the LORD's answer to it.
- Where
- The camp at Hazeroth in the wilderness, before the people moved on to the Wilderness of Paran.
- When
- The second year after the Exodus, soon after the departure from Sinai, about 1445 BC on the traditional dating.
- Why
- To settle that the LORD spoke with Moses directly, above every other prophet, and that speaking against His servant is speaking against Him.
Historical context
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.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The time is shortly after the departure from Sinai, and the place is Hazeroth, where Numbers 11:35 had left the camp.
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.
Significance
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.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The classical reading of this chapter turns on a subject a Christian reader may expect it to be about and finds it is about something else. The complaint of Miriam and Aaron is read as a complaint that Moses had separated from his wife. Rashi first weighs the verb. The word for spoke carries harsh speech wherever it stands, on the evidence of Genesis 42:30, while the word for said carries entreaty (Rashi on Numbers 12:1:1, citing Sifrei Bamidbar 99). Rashi is quoted in this row from the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, which the corpus marks public domain. Miriam is named first because she opened the conversation, and Rashi carries R. Nathan's account of how she learned it. She was standing beside Zipporah when the news came that Eldad and Medad were prophesying in the camp. Zipporah said that it would go hard with the wives of these men, since they would separate from their wives as her husband had separated from her. The moral Rashi draws is the one the chapter is remembered for in Jewish teaching. If Miriam, who meant no disparagement, was punished so severely, how much more one who speaks against his fellow deliberately (Rashi on Numbers 12:1:2, citing Sifrei Bamidbar 99). Their own words are filled out in the same sense, that God had spoken with them too and they had stayed with their spouses (Rashi on Numbers 12:2:2, citing Sifrei Bamidbar 100). The word for Moses' meekness is glossed as humble and patient (Rashi on Numbers 12:3:1).
God's answer is read as a vindication of Moses on that exact point. Rashi holds that God appeared suddenly while the two of them were unclean, so that they called for water. The suddenness was itself the argument, since the Divine word came to Moses at any hour and no hour could be set for it (Rashi on Numbers 12:4:1, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Tzav 13). The three names are said to have been spoken in one utterance. It was "something that is impossible for a human mouth to articulate and a human ear to catch" (Rashi on Numbers 12:4:2, citing Sifrei Bamidbar 102). The column of cloud carries a saying about how God moves. A human king goes to war with many troops and travels in peace with few. God goes to war alone, on the evidence of Exodus 15:3, and comes in peace with His hosts, on the evidence of Psalms 68:18 (Rashi on Numbers 12:5:1, citing Sifrei Bamidbar 102). At the eighth verse Rashi puts the vindication in God's own mouth: "I have Myself told him to separate from his wife". He locates the instruction at Sinai, in the words of Deuteronomy 5:27 and 28 (Rashi on Numbers 12:8:1, citing Shabbat 87a and Sifrei Bamidbar 103). The clearness of that speech he reads as plain statement, set against the riddles given to Ezekiel at Ezekiel 17:2. He closes the door on reading it as sight of God, on the evidence of Exodus 33:20 (Rashi on Numbers 12:8:2). Sforno adds the mark that separates Moses from the prophets of the sixth verse, that he hears God while awake (Sforno on Numbers 12:7:1, Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash).
The punishment and the plea are read as lessons in conduct. God told them their offence before He decreed anything, and Rashi draws the rule that a man should tell his fellow his offence before showing anger (Rashi on Numbers 12:9:1, citing Sifrei Bamidbar 104). The cloud lifted before the leprosy appeared, and Rashi explains the order by a parable. A king told his son's tutor to chastise the boy and to wait until the king had gone, "because I feel pity for him" (Rashi on Numbers 12:10:1, citing Sifrei Bamidbar 105). The shape of Moses' short prayer is taken as a pattern for asking a favour, with two or three words of entreaty before the request itself (Rashi on Numbers 12:13:1). The seven days are settled by a rule of inference. A father's displeasure would shame a daughter seven days, so God's reproof might seem to warrant fourteen. The sages' rule that an inference reaches only as far as its source holds it at seven (Rashi on Numbers 12:14:1, citing Sifrei Bamidbar 106 and Bava Kamma 25a). The chapter closes with a payment of an old debt. Israel waited for Miriam and moved no camp until she returned. Rashi reads that honour as her reward for the hour she stood at a distance by the river to see what would become of her brother (Rashi on Numbers 12:15:1). He gives the evidence from Exodus 2:4, and cites Sotah 9b. That is the teaching of the rabbis, and this site reports it as theirs. A Christian reader should carry away the shape of the classical reading here. The Cushite wife stands at the head of the chapter. The commentators put the weight on what Miriam said about a marriage rather than on whom Moses married. They answer the complaint by showing that Moses was keeping a command rather than taking a liberty. Ibn Ezra comments at 12:3:1, 12:7:1 and 12:16:1. The corpus carries no English text for him under its licence, so he stands here cited and unquoted.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited here and never quoted. The Talmudic ones are eighteen, a heavy count for a narrative chapter, which matches the weight this chapter carries in the law of speech. Avot DeRabbi Natan stands seven times, at 9:2, 23:1, 2:3 and 27:4, and at 43:28, 43:18 and 44:2 of Recension B. Berakhot stands four times, at 54b:3 on Moses' meekness, 55b:14 on the prophet's dream, 63b:12 on the confession and 34a:12 on the short prayer. Beside them stand Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 7:5:4 on the second verse, Keritot 9a:19 on the fourth, and Chagigah 5b:2 on the sixth. Shabbat 97a:2 stands on the ninth, Avodah Zarah 5a:19 on the twelfth, Bava Batra 111a:5 on the fourteenth and Bava Kamma 25a:8 on the fifteenth.
The midrashic locators run to twenty-two. Bamidbar Rabbah carries seven, at 2:10, 10:13, 14:3, 14:20, 15:23, 16:6 and 19:3. Midrash Aggadah carries four, at Numbers 12:2:1, 12:5:1, 12:10:1 and 12:10:2. Midrash Lekach Tov carries four, at Numbers 12:9:1 and 12:16:1, and at Exodus 3:8:2 and Deuteronomy 31:6:1. Midrash Tanchuma carries three, at Lech Lecha 19:1, Bereshit 1:11 and Masei 4:1. Four more stand alone: Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 10:13, Ein Yaakov, Keritot 2:2, Bereshit Rabbah 100:7, and Sifrei Zuta 12:34:1. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Numbers 12:1:1 to 12:15:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Sforno, Sforno on Numbers 12:7:1, Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Numbers 12:3:1, 12:7:1 and 12:16:1, cited by ref because the licence Sefaria reports does not permit the text here; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/numbers/12.json, the 18 Talmud and 22 Midrash locators of this chapter.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Has the LORD spoken only by Moses?
Numbers 12:1-2
The complaint names “the Cushite woman”, but verse 2 asks about authority. John Gill sets out the reading that Cush stands for Arabia and the wife is Zipporah, while Keil and Delitzsch take her as a Cushite distinct from Zipporah. Miriam is named first and the Hebrew verb is feminine singular, so Albert Barnes reads her as the mover, and verse 10 strikes her alone.
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
Their claim has a basis, since Aaron spoke for Moses at Exodus 4:15-16 and Miriam is called a prophetess at Exodus 15:20. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown say they took his exclusive authority as an encroachment on their rights. Origen asks what the wife has to do with it.
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
2 more voices on this verse
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
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
A book ascribed to Moses praises Moses here, and the King James translators set the sentence in brackets. Some hold that a later hand added it, others that Moses wrote what he was given, and Adam Clarke reads anav as afflicted, reporting what Moses bore. The man who says nothing in his own defence through the chapter has his case answered for him at verse 8.
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
Mouth to mouth, not in dark sayings
Numbers 12:4-5
Adam Clarke fastens on “suddenly”, since no time is left for the complaint to spread or for the three to prepare an account of it. The LORD comes down “in a pillar of cloud” and stands at the entrance, which Matthew Henry compares to a judge taking his seat in the city gate. Moses is called out with the other two and is never asked to speak.
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
The LORD came down in the cloud at 11:25 to share the Spirit with the seventy, and he comes down the same way here to judge. Aaron and Miriam are called forward and stand apart from Moses. Matthew Henry sees delinquents called to the bar.
Numbers 12:6-7
Vision and dream are the ordinary ways God speaks to a prophet, and verse 7 sets Moses apart, “he is faithful in all My house”. Adam Clarke shows from 1 Samuel 3:20 that the word behind faithful, neeman, is used of a trusted steward. Hebrews 3:5 quotes it and adds that “Moses was faithful as a servant” while Christ is a Son over the house.
Servant is the title the LORD gives Moses here and the one Deuteronomy 34:5 writes over his death. Clement of Rome says the man called faithful in all God's house never boasted, and at the bush asked who he was to be sent. The house is the whole household of Israel.
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
Numbers 12:8-9
Speaking “face to face” stands against vision and dream, as at Exodus 33:11, though Exodus 33:20 says “no one can see Me and live”. Older readers take “the form of the LORD” as a showing of glory, not the divine essence, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see no clash with Deuteronomy 4:15. The charge is about fear, “Why then were you unafraid”, and the LORD departs before any symptom appears.
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
and he departed: Wesley notes that the LORD leaves without waiting for any answer from the two accused. The departure is itself the sentence. Ezekiel 10:18 sets the glory departing from the temple before judgment falls on Jerusalem.
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
Miriam white as snow, shut out seven days
Numbers 12:10-12
The cloud lifts and Miriam is leprous in one verse, as fire at 11:1 and plague at 11:33 answered earlier complaints. Only Miriam is struck, and Gill and Henry explain it by the priesthood a leprous Aaron could not have served. Aaron, whom Leviticus 13 appoints to judge such a plague, can only plead with Moses, and verse 12 likens her to “a stillborn infant whose flesh is half consumed”.
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
Aaron now addresses his younger brother as lord, which unsays the claim of verse 2 that God spoke through them as well. Matthew Henry calls repentance the unsaying of what was said amiss. He sets Aaron beside Matthew 5:23-24, where the man with a gift must first be reconciled to his brother.
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
Aaron pleads with the picture of a child born dead, and all three came from one mother, Jochebed, as Exodus 6:20 records. Exodus 2:4 has their sister, taken to be Miriam, watching over the infant Moses at the river. Wesley says only God's power could restore such flesh.
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
Numbers 12:13-14
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.
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
If her father had but spit in her face: Clarke calls spitting in the face the deepest contempt. Deuteronomy 25:9 makes it the public disgrace of a man who refused his brother's widow. Isaiah 50:6 and Mark 14:65 show the Servant, and then Christ, taking that same shame.
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
Numbers 12:15-16
A nation of hundreds of thousands waits seven days until one woman is “brought in again”. Deuteronomy 24:9 makes the week a standing command inside the law of leprosy, “Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam”, and Micah 6:4 names her with Moses and Aaron. Verse 16 sets the camp in the Wilderness of Paran, from which chapter 13 sends out the spies.
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
Deuteronomy 1:2 counts eleven days of travel from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea, and this camp in Paran puts Israel near the end of it. Clarke observes that they spent thirty-eight years on a road of a few weeks. The next chapter shows why.
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
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative of a challenge and its judgment, carrying one oracle spoken by the LORD at verses 6 to 8, as Adam Clarke and Matthew Henry classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| And the LORD heard it | The complaint is reported and then one short clause closes it. The same clause opened the complaining at Numbers 11:1, where the people complained in the hearing of the LORD. Here it stands at the end of verse 2, after a private conversation between two people. The chapter's exposition note on verses 1 and 2 marks the repetition and lets it carry the judgment that follows.Albert Barnes with Keil and Delitzsch, Notes on the Old Testament and Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, the works the chapter's exposition note on Numbers 12:1-2 is written from. | Numbers 12:2, Numbers 11:1 |
| The summons to the tent door | All three are called out at once and the word the text uses is suddenly. Adam Clarke fastens on that word, since no interval is left for the complaint to spread or for an account of it to be prepared. The pillar comes down and stands at the door of the tent, 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.Adam Clarke and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Bible and Commentary on the Whole Bible, the works the chapter's exposition note on Numbers 12:4-5 is written from. | Numbers 12:4, Numbers 12:5 |
| Vision and dream against mouth to mouth | The oracle is built on a pair of opposites. A prophet in Israel is met in a vision and spoken to in a dream, and Moses is spoken with mouth to mouth, clearly and without riddles. The first half fixes what a prophet is before the exception is stated, and the second half sets Moses outside that class in one clause, faithful in all My house. The charge at the close of verse 8 is about fear rather than rank.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown with Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible and Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, the works the chapter's exposition note on Numbers 12:8-9 is written from. | Numbers 12:6, Numbers 12:7, Numbers 12:8 |
| The camp held and the camp set out | The chapter opens with two people talking in a camp that has stopped at Hazeroth. It closes with the same camp setting out for the Wilderness of Paran. Between the two, a nation of hundreds of thousands stays where it stands for seven days until one woman is brought back in. The measure is given twice in two verses, seven days of a daughter's disgrace at verse 14 and seven days outside the camp at verse 15.Keil and Delitzsch with Matthew Henry, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Commentary on the Whole Bible, the works the chapter's exposition note on Numbers 12:15-16 is written from. | Numbers 12:1, Numbers 12:15, Numbers 12:16 |
The historical value
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
The sentence passed on Miriam is an application of a law already given. Leviticus 13 puts the examination of the disease in the hands of the priest, and Leviticus 13:46 puts the person outside the camp. Aaron is the man the law appoints to look at a plague and pronounce on it. Here he looks at his own sister and can only ask Moses to plead for her. The image the LORD uses for her disgrace is a shaming gesture a first hearer had seen, a father spitting in his daughter's face. The commentaries this book already cites for the chapter take the seven days of shame from that custom.
The debated points
Who the Cushite woman was is genuinely contested. John Gill sets out the reading that Cush stands for Arabia and that the wife is Zipporah the Midianite, whom Moses had already married. Keil and Delitzsch take her as a Cushite distinct from Zipporah, which makes this a second marriage. The commentaries this book already cites for the chapter add the geography behind the dispute, since Cush usually means Nubia south of Egypt, while Habakkuk names a Cushan beside Midian. The text itself never treats the marriage as the offence, and the rebuke at verse 8 is about speaking against the servant of the LORD.
Verse 3 is a second question. A book ascribed to Moses carries a sentence in praise of Moses, and the King James translators set it inside brackets. One position holds that a later hand added the line. Another holds that Moses wrote down what he was given to write about himself. 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. The verse settles none of the three.
Verse 8 raises a third. Moses sees the form of the LORD here, and Exodus 33:11 says the same thing as face to face, while Exodus 33:20 says that no man shall see God and live. Older readers hold the two together by taking the form as a manifestation of glory rather than the divine essence. 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 New Testament's use
Hebrews 3:2 and 3:5 quote verse 7 and then draw a line the Old Testament had not drawn. Moses was faithful as a servant in the house, and Christ is a son over it. The writer of Hebrews takes the commendation of this chapter as the ground of the comparison, so the highest thing said about Moses in the Torah becomes the measure he is read by.
The divine connection
The chapter ranks revelation and then defends a man who says nothing in his own defence. Moses answers neither charge, and the LORD answers both for him. When the stroke falls, the man who was spoken against is the man who prays for the one who spoke, and the prayer runs to five words in the Hebrew. Deuteronomy 24:9 turns the week into a standing command to remember what the LORD did to Miriam on the way, and it is given inside the law of leprosy rather than as a story. Micah 6:4 still names her with Moses and Aaron among those God sent before Israel.
Keep studying
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 form and classifications
Adam Clarke and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Bible and Commentary on the Whole Bible, the works the chapter's exposition notes on Numbers 12:4-5 and on Numbers 12:6-7 are written from.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Clement of Rome, LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 17; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2:1.