Numbers 12:8

_WITH HIM WILL I SPEAK MOUTH TO MOUTH, EVEN APPARENTLY, AND NOT IN DARK SPEECHES; AND THE SIMILITUDE OF THE LORD SHALL HE BEHOLD: WHEREFORE THEN WERE YE NOT AFRAID TO SPEAK AGAINST MY SERVANT MOSES?_ Mouth to mouth. Immediately, not by an interpreter, nor by visionary symbols presented to his fancy. APPARENTLY - plainly and surely. NOT IN DARK SPEECHES - parables or similitudes. THE SIMILITUDE OF THE LORD SHALL HE BEHOLD - not the face or essence of God, who is invisible (Exodus 33:20; Colossians 1:15; John 1:18), but some unmistakeable evidence of His glorious presence (Exodus 33:2;...

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...

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

WITH HIM WILL I SPEAK MOUTH TO MOUTH,.... And face to face, as he had done, Exodus 33:11; in a free, friendly, and familiar manner, as one friend speaks to another, without injecting any fear or dread, and consternation of mind, which was sometimes the case of the prophets; or without a middle person, a mediator, as Aben Ezra, not by means of an angel, as in some cases, but the Lord himself spake to him: EVEN APPARENTLY, AND NOT IN DARK SPEECHES; the word "apparently", or "vision", being opposed to "dark speeches", shows that this is not to be understood of the appearance or vision of an object presented to the sight, or to the mind, which is denied of Moses, though usual with other prophets; but of the vision, or plain sense and meaning of words, which are so plainly expressed, that the sense is easily seen and understood; it was not under figures and allegories, and para

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...

MOUTH TO MOUTH. Compare Genesis 45:12; 2 John 1:12; 3 John 1:14. See also Exodus 33:11.Deuteronomy 34:10. Figure of speech _Anthropopatheia._ App-6. APPARENTLY. plainly. NOT, &C.. Figure of speech _Pleonasm._ App-6. SIMILITUDE: i.e. likeness or image. This must be understood in harmony with Exodus 33:20; Exodus 33:23. Compare...

DISCOURSE: 153 AARON AND MIRIAM REPROVED Numbers 12:8. _Wherefore were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them: and he departed_. WHEN men are angry, we may often, and with reason, doubt, whether there be any just occasion for their displeasure: but when we see Almighty God expressing indignation, we may always ask with confidence, “Is there not a cause?” It is no slight degree of anger which God manifests in the passage before us. And what could be the reason? We are told that “Aaron and Miriam spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married [Note: ver. 1.].” But this seems only to have been, if not a fictitious, at least a secondary, reason. (It must be strange indeed if they now began to be displeased with a thing which they knew to have been done many years, and which had never, in that

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