Numbers 12:14

If her father had but spit in her face, &c.— That is to say, "If she had, by some undutiful behaviour, provoked her father to be angry with her, and to spit in her face, as an indication of that anger, (Job 30:10. Isaiah 50:6. Mark 14:65; Mark 15:19.) she would certainly be ashamed for some time to look him in the face. How much more, then, ought she to be ashamed, when she lies under this severe mark of my displeasure; and to exclude herself, at least, from the camp during the time appointed for legal cleansing from such impurities." Leviticus 14:8. Numbers 6:9.

Many of the fathers have considered the events of this chapter as remarkably typical. Zipporah, espoused to Moses, is, according to them, a type of the Gentiles espoused by our Saviour: Miriam and Aaron represent the jealous synagogue; the leprosy of Miriam, the sin of the Jews; Moses, Jesus Christ: in fine, says Calmet, the eulogy which God himself gives to Moses is too elevated to be applied in the strictness of the letter to that law-giver. It is only of Jesus Christ that we can say, with strict truth, that he is the most meek and the most patient of all men, that he saw God face to face, and is most faithful in the house of God.