Mary and Aaron murmur against Moses, whom God praiseth above other
prophets. Mary being struck with leprosy, Aaron confesseth his fault.
Moses prayeth for her, and after seven days’ separation from the camp,
she is restored.
12:1. And Mary and Aaron spoke against Moses, because of his wife the
Ethiopian,
Ethiopian.... Sephora the wife of Moses was of Madian, which bordered
upon the land of Chus or Ethiopia: where note, that the Ethiopia here
spoken of is not that of Africa but that of Arabia.
12:2. And they said: Hath the Lord spoken by Moses only? Hath he not
also spoken to us in like manner? And when the Lord heard this,
12:3. (For Moses was a man exceeding meek above all men that dwelt upon
earth)
Exceeding meek.... Moses being the meekest of men, would not contend
for himself; therefore, God inspired him to write here his own defence:
and the Holy Spirit, whose dictate he wrote, obliged him to declare the
truth, though it was so much to his own praise.
12:4. Immediately he spoke to him, and to Aaron and Mary: Come out you
three only to the tabernacle of the covenant. And when they were come
out,
12:5. The Lord came down in a pillar of the cloud, and stood in the
entry of the tabernacle calling to Aaron and Mary. And when they were
come,
12:6. He said to them: Hear my words: if there be among you a prophet
of the Lord, I will appear to him in a vision, or I will speak to him
in a dream.
12:7. But it is not so with my servant Moses who is most faithful in
all my house:
12:8. For I speak to him mouth to mouth: and plainly, and not by
riddles and figures doth he see the Lord. Why then were you not afraid
to speak ill of my servant Moses?
12:9. And being angry with them he went away:
12:10. The cloud also that was over the tabernacle departed: and behold
Mary appeared white as snow with a leprosy. And when Aaron had looked
on her, and saw her all covered with leprosy,
12:11. He said to Moses: I beseech thee, my lord, lay not upon us this
sin, which we have foolishly committed:
12:12. Let her not be as one dead, and as an abortive that is cast
forth from the mother’s womb. Lo, now one half of her flesh is consumed
with the leprosy.
12:13. And Moses cried to the Lord, saying O God, I beseech thee heal
her.
12:14. And the Lord answered him: If her father had spitten upon her
face, ought she not to have been ashamed for seven days at least? Let
her be separated seven days without the camp, and afterwards she shall
be called again.
12:15. Mary therefore was put out of the camp seven days: and the
people moved not from that place until Mary was called again.