Numbers 12:6

_AND HE SAID, HEAR NOW MY WORDS: IF THERE BE A PROPHET AMONG YOU, I THE LORD WILL MAKE MYSELF KNOWN UNTO HIM IN A VISION, AND WILL SPEAK UNTO HIM IN A DREAM._ Hear now my words. A difference of degree is here distinctly expressed in the gifts and authority even of divinely-commissioned prophets Moses having been set over all God's house - i:e., His church and people-was consequently invested with supremacy over Miriam and Aaron also, and privileged beyond all others by direct and clear manifestations of the presence and will of God....

6._If there be a prophet among you. _He makes mention of two methods by which the will of God was wont to be revealed to the prophets, viz., visions and dreams. He does not, however, here use the word חזון _chazon, _(42) which signifies a prophecy as well as a vision, but מראה, _marah, _expressive of some visible appearance, which confirms and ratifies the truth of His word _(oraculi) _to the eyes and all the senses. Thus has God often appeared to His servants, so that His majesty might be inscribed upon His addresses to them. Before the giving of the Law such visions were frequently vouchsafed to the Patriarchs; whilst sometimes they were instructed by dreams. Thus Joel, when he promises that under the kingdom of Christ there shall be a complete fullness of all revelations, also enumerates these two forms of them,...

1-9 The patience of Moses was tried in his own family, as well as by the people. The pretence was, that he had married a foreign wife; but probably their pride was hurt, and their envy stirred up, by his superior authority. Opposition from our near relations, and from religious friends, is most painful. But this is to be looked for, and it will be well if in such circumstances we can preserve the gentleness and meekness of Moses. Moses was thus fitted to the work he was called to. God not only cleared Moses, but praised him. Moses had the spirit of prophecy in a way which set him far above all other prophets; yet he that is least in the kingdom of heaven, is greater than he; and our Lord Jesus infinitely excels him, Hebrews 3:1. Let Miriam and Aaron consider whom it was they insulted. We have reason to be afraid of saying or doing any thing against the servants of God. And those are pre...

Verse Numbers 12:6. _IF THERE BE A PROPHET_] We see here the different ways in which God usually made himself known to the prophets, viz., by _visions _- emblematic appearances, and by _dreams_, in which the future was announced by _dark speeches_, בחידת bechidoth, by enigmas or figurative representations, Numbers 12:8. But to Moses God had communicated himself in a different way - he spoke to him _face to_ _face, apparently_, showing him his glory: not in dark or enigmatical speeches; this could not be admitted in the case in which Moses was engaged, for he was to receive _laws_ by Divine inspiration, the _precepts_ and _expressions_ of which must all be _ad_ _captum vulgi_, within the reach of the meanest capacity. As Moses, therefore, was chosen of Go...

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 HE SAID, HEAR NOW MY WORDS,.... The Targum of Jonathan reads, "I beseech you"; and Jarchi says, this particle always so signifies; but it is not so agreeable to the language of the divine Being: IF THERE BE A PROPHET AMONG YOU; not as making a doubt of it, but rather allowing that there was, and that there were others besides Moses, as even they themselves, Aaron and Miriam, and the seventy elders, and perhaps others; or at least there had been, and would be again, as there were in later times: [I] THE LORD WILL MAKE MYSELF KNOWN TO HIM; that is, declare my mind and will concerning things present, or things to come: IN A VISION; when awake, either by day or by night, representing objects to the bodily sight; as the almond tree rod, and the boiling pot, to Jeremiah, Jeremiah 1:11; the visions of the chariots,...

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...

HE: i.e. Jehovah. SAID. See note on Numbers 3:40. IF THERE BE. should there be; i.e. when ye have your prophet. MAKE MYSELF KNOWN. This also essential to. prophet. Compare Numbers 11:29....