Numbers 12:14

_AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES, IF HER FATHER HAD BUT SPIT IN HER FACE, SHOULD SHE NOT BE ASHAMED SEVEN DAYS? LET HER BE SHUT OUT FROM THE CAMP SEVEN DAYS, AND AFTER THAT LET HER BE RECEIVED IN AGAIN._ Her father had but spit in her face. The Jews, in common with all people in the East, seem to have had an intense abhorrence of spitting; and for a parent to express his displeasure by doing so on the person of one of his children, or even on the ground in his presence, separated that child as unclean from society for seven days....

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 12:14. _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; Isaiah 50:6; Mark 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_. If then this was an allowed and judged case in matters of high provocation on the part of a child, should not the punishment be equally severe where the creature...

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 LORD SAID UNTO MOSES,.... By a voice out of the cloud, though at a distance; unless it was by a secret impulse upon his spirit, darting such words into his mind as if he heard an audible voice: IF HER FATHER HAD BUT SPIT IN HER FACE; or, "in spitting spitted" l; spit much, and continued spitting till he had covered her face with spittle; which, as it would have been a token of anger and displeasure in him, an earthly father, who is meant, and of shame and disgrace to her; so there is some likeness in spittle to leprosy, both being white, and in such a case to the abundance of it, her thee being covered with leprosy; and which came as it were from the mouth of the Lord, by his order and appointment, immediately, as spittle from a man, and like that, in a way of detestation and contempt, and to make abhorred and despised: SHOULD SHE NOT BE ASHAMED SEVEN DAYS? hide herself, and ne...

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...

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....

F. FOOLISH CONDUCT OF MIRIAM AND AARON AND RESOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM (NUMBERS 12) TEXT Numbers 12:1. And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. 2. And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. 3. (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) 4. And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come ye out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. 5. And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth. 6. And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet amo