Numbers 12:10

12:10 When ¹  the cloud departed from above the tent, Miriam became ²  leprous ³  as snow. Then Aaron looked at ⁴  Miriam, and she was leprous!

Numbers 12:2

12:2 They ⁵  said, “Has the Lord only ⁶  spoken through Moses? Has he not also spoken through us?” ⁷  And the Lord heard it. ⁸ 

Numbers 5:27

5:27 When he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, the water that brings a curse will enter her to produce bitterness – her abdomen will swell, her thigh will fall away, and the woman will become a curse among her people.

[12:10]  ¹ tn The disjunctive vav (ו) is here introducing a circumstantial clause of time.

[12:10]  ² tn There is no verb “became” in this line. The second half of the line is introduced with the particle הִנֵה (hinneh, “look, behold”) in its archaic sense. This deictic use is intended to make the reader focus on Miriam as well.

[12:10]  ³ sn The word “leprosy” and “leprous” covers a wide variety of skin diseases, and need not be limited to the actual disease of leprosy known today as Hansen’s disease. The description of it here has to do with snow, either the whiteness or the wetness. If that is the case then there would be open wounds and sores – like Job’s illness (see M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 95-96).

[12:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “turned to.”

[12:2]  ⁵ tn Now the text changes to use a plural form of the verb. The indication is that Miriam criticized the marriage, and then the two of them raised questions about his sole leadership of the nation.

[12:2]  ⁶ tn The use of both רַק and אַךְ (raq and ’akh) underscore the point that the issue is Moses’ uniqueness.

[12:2]  ⁷ tn There is irony in the construction in the text. The expression “speak through us” also uses דִּבֵּר + בְּ(dibber + bÿ). They ask if God has not also spoken through them, after they have spoken against Moses. Shortly God will speak against them – their words are prophetic, but not as they imagined.

[12:2]  ⁸ sn The statement is striking. Obviously the Lord knows all things. But the statement of the obvious here is meant to indicate that the Lord was about to do something about this.