Numbers 12:10

_AND THE CLOUD DEPARTED FROM OFF THE TABERNACLE; AND, BEHOLD, MIRIAM BECAME LEPROUS, WHITE AS SNOW: AND AARON LOOKED UPON MIRIAM, AND, BEHOLD, SHE WAS LEPROUS._ The cloud departed from off the tabernacle - i:e., from the door, to resume its permanent position over the mercy-seat. MIRIAM BECAME LEPROUS. This malady in its most malignant form (Exodus 4:6; 2 Kings 5:27), as its colour, combined with its sudden appearance, proved, was inflicted as a divine judgment; and she was made the victim, either from her extreme violence, or because the leprosy on Aaron would have interrupted or dishonoured the holy service....

10-16 The cloud departed, and Miriam became leprous. When God goes, evil comes: expect no good when God departs. Her foul tongue, as Bishop Hall says, was justly punished with a foul face. Aaron, as priest, was judge of the leprosy. He could not pronounce her leprous without trembling, knowing himself to be equally guilty. But if she was thus punished for speaking against Moses, what will become of those who sin against Christ? Aaron, who joined his sister in speaking against Moses, is forced for himself and his sister, to beseech him, and to speak highly of him whom he had so lately blamed. Those who trample upon the saints and servants of God, will one day be glad to make court to them. It is well when rebukes produce confession of sin and repentance. Such offenders, though corrected and disgraced, shall be pardoned. Moses made it appear, that he forgave the injury done him. To this p...

Verse Numbers 12:10. _MIRIAM_ BECAME _LEPROUS_] It is likely Miriam was _chief_ in this mutiny; and it is probable that it was on this ground she is mentioned _first_, (see Numbers 12:1,) and punished here, while Aaron is spared. Had he been smitten with the leprosy, his sacred character must have greatly suffered, and perhaps the _priesthood_ itself have fallen into contempt. How many priests and preachers who deserved to be exposed to reproach and infamy, have been spared for the sake of the holy character they bore, that the ministry might not be blamed! But the just God will visit their transgressions in some other way, if they do not deeply deplore them and find mercy through Christ. Nothing tends to discredit the work of God so much as the transgressions and...

Miriam, as a prophetess (compare Exodus 15:20) 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 Numbers 12:1, and that the punishment Numbers 12:10 fell on her alone. She probably considered herself as supplanted, and that too by a foreigner. Aaron was misled this time by the urgency of his sister, as once before...

EXPOSITION THE SEDITION AND PUNISHMENT OF MIRIAM (Numbers 12:1.). NUMBERS 12:1 AND MIRIAM AND AARON SPAKE AGAINST MOSES. While the people were encamped at Hazeroth (see Numbers 12:16), and therefore probably very soon after the events of the last chapter. That Miriam's was the moving spirit in the matter is sufficiently evident, (1) because her name stands first; (2) because the verb "spake" is in the feminine (יַתְּדַבֵּר, "and she said"); (3) because the ground of annoyance

AND THE CLOUD DEPARTED FROM OFF THE TABERNACLE,.... Not from off the door of the tabernacle, as Aben Ezra, for that is implied in the last clause of Numbers 12:9, but from off that part of the tabernacle, the most holy place, where it had used to abide; but now it went up higher in the air, or removed at some distance from thence, which was a further indication of the sore displeasure of God; that as he would not stay with Aaron and Miriam at the door of the tabernacle, so neither would he suffer the cloud to continue over it, as it was wont to do, so long as they were there: AND, BEHOLD, MIRIAM [BECAME] LEPROUS, [WHITE] AS SNOW; was smote immediately with a leprosy by the Lord, as the hand of Moses was in a miraculous way, Exodus 4:6; and as Gehazi was, who was smitten of God in like manner,...

3. THE REBELLION OF MIRIAM AND AARON CHAPTER 12 _ 1. Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses (Numbers 12:1)_ 2. The interference of the Lord (Numbers 12:4) 3. Miriam leprous (Numbers 12:10) 4. Aaron's confession and intercession (Numbers 12:11) 5. Moses' prayer and Miriam's restoration (Numbers 12:13) Open rebellion against Moses by his own brother and sister is the next step in the story of failure. Envy was at the bottom of it. The words Miriam and Aaron spoke reveal that they aimed at Moses' pos

NUMBERS 12:1 (JE). MIRIAM'S AND AARON'S JEALOUSY OF MOSES, AND YAHWEH'S VINDICATION OF HIM. The challenge of Moses-' prerogative to be Yahweh's sole spokesman is strangely combined with a complaint respecting his marriage with a Cushite woman (perhaps another story in which Miriam, without Aaron, figured). Elsewhere Moses-' wife, Zipporah, is represented as a Midianite (Exodus 2:16) or a Kenite (Judges 1:16; Judges 4:11): so that if Zipporah is here alluded to, this description of her as a Cushite may refer not to the African Cush (= Ethiopia) but to an Arabian Cush (perhaps the Cushan of...

LEPROUS. See note on Exodus 4:6. BEHOLD. Figure of speech _Asterismos._ App-6. = "there she was leprous! "abruptness of language reveals the excitement produced....

AND, BEHOLD, MIRIAM BECAME LEPROUS— We have here another instance of the expressive beauty of the original being spoiled by the insertion of the italics. Nothing can be more nervous and significative than the passage is without them: _the cloud departed; and behold Miriam leprous as snow!_ As a token of the divine displeasure, after having justified Moses, the Lord instantly withdrew, and struck Miriam with a leprosy, whose whiteness declared it of the most inveterate kind. See Exodus 4:6. 2 Kings 5:27....