Discovery BoxExodus 11:8
Context11:8 All these your servants will come down to me and bow down 1 to me, saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow 2 you,’ and after that I will go out.” Then Moses 3 went out from Pharaoh in great anger.
Numbers 12:11-13
Context12:11 So Aaron said to Moses, “O my lord, 4 please do not hold this sin against us, in which we have acted foolishly and have sinned! 12:12 Do not let her be like a baby born dead, whose flesh is half-consumed when it comes out of its 5 mother’s womb!”
12:13 Then Moses cried to the Lord, “Heal her now, O God.” 6
Numbers 12:1
Context12:1 7 Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against 8 Moses because of the Cushite 9 woman he had married 10 (for he had married an Ethiopian woman).
Numbers 13:6
Context13:6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;
Isaiah 60:14
Context60:14 The children of your oppressors will come bowing to you;
all who treated you with disrespect will bow down at your feet.
They will call you, ‘The City of the Lord,
Zion of the Holy One of Israel.’ 11
Revelation 3:9
Context3:9 Listen! 12 I am going to make those people from the synagogue 13 of Satan – who say they are Jews yet 14 are not, but are lying – Look, I will make 15 them come and bow down 16 at your feet and acknowledge 17 that I have loved you.
[11:8] 1 sn Moses’ anger is expressed forcefully. “He had appeared before Pharaoh a dozen times either as God’s emissary or when summoned by Pharaoh, but he would not come again; now they would have to search him out if they needed help” (B. Jacob, Exodus, 289-90).
[11:8] 2 tn Heb “that are at your feet.”
[11:8] 3 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[12:11] 4 tn The expression בִּי אֲדֹנִי (bi ’adoni, “O my lord”) shows a good deal of respect for Moses by Aaron. The expression is often used in addressing God.
[12:12] 5 tc The words “its mother” and “its flesh” are among the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” According to this tradition the text originally had here “our mother” and “our flesh,” but the ancient scribes changed these pronouns from the first person to the third person. Apparently they were concerned that the image of Moses’ mother giving birth to a baby with physical defects of the sort described here was somehow inappropriate, given the stature and importance of Moses.
[12:13] 6 tc Some scholars emend אֵל (’el, “God”) to עַל(’al, “no”). The effect of this change may be seen in the NAB: “‘Please, not this! Pray, heal her!’”
[12:1] 7 sn In this short chapter we find a prime example of jealousy among leaders and how God dealt with it. Miriam and Aaron are envious of Moses’ leadership, but they use an occasion – his marriage – to criticize him. Often the immediate criticism is simply a surface issue for a deeper matter. God indicates very clearly he will speak through many people, including them, but Moses is different. Moses is the mediator of the covenant. The chapter is a lesson of what not to do. They should have fulfilled their duties before God and not tried to compete or challenge the leader in this way. There is a touch of divine irony here, for Miriam is turned white with leprosy. The chapter falls easily into the sections of the story: the accusation (vv. 1-3), the
[12:1] 8 tn The preposition bet (בְּ) has the adversative sense here, “[speak] against” (see also its use for hostile speech in 21:5, 7). Speaking against is equal to the murmuring throughout the wilderness period. The verb of the sentence is וַתְּדַבֵּר (vattÿdabber), the feminine form of the verb. This indicates that Miriam was the main speaker for the two, the verb agreeing with the first of the compound subject.
[12:1] 9 tn The Hebrew text has הַכֻּשִׁית (hakkushit, “the Cushite”) as the modifier of “woman.” The Greek text interpreted this correctly as “Ethiopian.” The word Cush in the Bible can describe the Cassites, east of Babylon of the later period (Gen 10:18), or Ethiopia (Isa 20:3; Nah 3:5; et al). Another suggestion is that it would refer to Cushan of Hab 3:7, perhaps close to Midian, and so the area Moses had been. This would suggest it could be Zipporah – but the Bible does not identify the Cushite as Zipporah. The most natural understanding would be that it refers to an Egyptian/Ethiopian woman. The text does not say when Moses married this woman, or what Miriam’s problem with her was. It is clear that it was a racial issue, by virtue of the use of “Cushite.” Whether she was of darker skin than the Hebrews would be hard to say, since the Bible gives no further detail. Neither does it say if this is a second wife, or a woman Moses married since Zipporah went home (Exod 18:2). These do not seem to be the issues the text wishes to elaborate on; it is simply stating that this woman was the occasion for a deeper challenge.
[60:14] 11 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
[3:9] 12 tn Grk “behold” (L&N 91.13).
[3:9] 13 sn See the note on synagogue in 2:9.
[3:9] 14 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “yet” to indicate the contrast between what these people claimed and what they were.
[3:9] 15 tn The verb here is ποιέω (poiew), but in this context it has virtually the same meaning as δίδωμι (didwmi) used at the beginning of the verse. Stylistic variation like this is typical of Johannine literature.
[3:9] 16 tn The verb here is προσκυνήσουσιν (proskunhsousin), normally used to refer to worship.
