Numbers 12:2-7

12:2 They ¹  said, “Has the Lord only ²  spoken through Moses? Has he not also spoken through us?” ³  And the Lord heard it. ⁴ 

12:3 (Now the man Moses was very humble, ⁵  more so than any man on the face of the earth.)

The Response of the Lord

12:4 The Lord spoke immediately to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam: “The three of you come to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them went. 12:5 And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent; he then called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward.

12:6 The Lord ⁶  said, “Hear now my words: If there is a prophet among you, ⁷  I the Lord ⁸  will make myself known to him in a vision; I will speak with him in a dream. 12:7 My servant ⁹  Moses is not like this; he is faithful ¹⁰  in all my house.

[12:2]  ¹ 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]  ² tn The use of both רַק and אַךְ (raq and ’akh) underscore the point that the issue is Moses’ uniqueness.

[12:2]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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.

[12:3]  ⁵ tc The spelling of the word is a Kethib-Qere reading with only a slight difference between the two.

[12:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “he.”

[12:6]  ⁷ tn The form of this construction is rare: נְבִיאֲכֶם (nÿvi’akhem) would normally be rendered “your prophet.” The singular noun is suffixed with a plural pronominal suffix. Some commentators think the MT has condensed “a prophet” with “to you.”

[12:6]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew syntax is difficult here. “The Lord” is separated from the verb by two intervening prepositional phrases. Some scholars conclude that this word belongs with the verb at the beginning of v. 6 (“And the Lord spoke”).

[12:7]  ⁹ sn The title “my servant” or “servant of the Lord” is reserved in the Bible for distinguished personages, people who are truly spiritual leaders, like Moses, David, Hezekiah, and also the Messiah. Here it underscores Moses’ obedience.

[12:7]  ¹⁰ tn The word “faithful” is נֶאֱמָן (ne’eman), the Niphal participle of the verb אָמַן (’aman). This basic word has the sense of “support, be firm.” In the Niphal it describes something that is firm, reliable, dependable – what can be counted on. It could actually be translated “trustworthy.”