Perhaps it was God's exaltation of Moses by bestowing the gift of prophecy on the elders that provoked the envy of Miriam and Aaron. God reminded the people of Moses' special endowment with the Spirit when He blessed the elders with the Spirit.
12:1-3 Miriam was the outspoken leader in this incident. The priority of her name over Aaron's and the feminine gender of the verb in the Hebrew text translated "spoke"indicate this (v. 1).
The Cushite woman Moses had married was probably not Zipporah (Exod. 2:21). Zipporah was from Midian that was in Arabia. At this time Cush was a name for Upper Egypt (Ethiopia).
". . . the Septuagint and the Vulgate translate Cushite' in Numbers 12:1 as Ethiopian,' the word used by the Greeks and Romans to refer to the region south of Egypt inhabited by people with black skin."103
It seems unlikely that Miriam would have objected at this time to Moses' marrying Zipporah. He had married her years before this incident. The repetition of the phrase "for he had married a Cushite woman"(v. 1) seems to imply a recent marriage. This would explain Miriam's objection at this time better. We may assume, therefore, that Zipporah had died and that Moses had remarried. There is no reason to believe that Moses was married to two women at the same time, though this is possible. Marriage to a Cushite was within the will of God. God had only forbidden the Israelites from marrying Canaanites (Exod. 34:16).
Evidently Miriam and Aaron felt their leading roles in Israel as prophetess (Exod. 15:20) and high priest were losing distinctiveness as God gave 70 elders the privilege of mediating His word. Perhaps Miriam saw in Moses' new wife a threat to her role as the leading female in Israel.
The statement of Moses' humility (v. 3) was not a boastful claim by the writer but an inspired statement of fact. We need not conclude that another writer added it later since it is essential to the argument of this passage. That another writer added it later is a distinct possibility, however.104
12:4-9 God's common method of communicating with His prophets was by giving them visions and dreams (v. 6).105Moses was a specially privileged prophet, however, with whom God spoke directly without any special mediation or reserve. He spoke with Moses as friends converse (v. 8; cf. Exod. 33:11).106
12:10-15 The Lord punished Miriam for her dissatisfaction with her divinely appointed role in the nation. He punished her with leprosy, the disease that specially symbolized sin (Lev. 13-14).107All the Israelites probably identified her self-assertion as sin. Perhaps God did not smite Aaron because his involvement was not as great.
"In the present narrative, the sign of Moses' leadership was Miriam's leprosy, which was white as snow' (Nu 12:10). Similarly, one of the first signs given to vindicate God's election of Moses as leader of his people was the sign of leprosy, white as snow' (Ex 4:6). In the initial narratives dealing with the work of Moses, Moses himself doubted his calling and consequently became a leper. Here, however, it is Miriam who doubts and thus becomes a leper. We should also note that the other sign given to vindicate the role of Moses in the earlier narrative was the serpent that came from Moses' rod (Ex 4:3). So also here, when Moses' authority is further questioned by the people at the end of their time in the wilderness (Nu 21:5), God responds by sending serpents against them (21:6)."108
Moses interceded for Miriam at Aaron's pleading. Ironically Aaron had wanted to be like Moses, but instead of being able to intercede directly with God as Moses did, Aaron had to appeal to Moses who interceded with God.109God again showed mercy. He removed her leprosy but punished her with exclusion from the camp for seven days (Lev. 14:8). Spitting in the face (v. 14) was an act of contempt for one who had done something despicable (cf. Deut. 25:9; Job 17:6; 30:10). The people suffered too as a result of Miriam and Aaron's rebellion. God halted their progress toward the Promised Land again (v. 15; cf. 11:20).
"Aaron, on seeing the judgment of leprosy come upon his sister, beseeches Moses for mercy. There is surely in his prayer an implicit recognition of the different kind of authority that Moses had. Indeed, he is acknowledging that Moses possessed a power in intercession with God that he himself could not exercise, hence his appeal to his brother."110
"The purpose of this chapter, then, is to vindicate Moses' divinely given leadership and to brush aside any further suggestion that, because of the establishment of other forms of authority, the type of leadership epitomized in Moses was no longer valid."111
12:16 From Hazeroth Israel moved on to the wilderness of Paran and Kadesh on the border of Canaan.
These three failures to be content with God's provisions and plans at Taberah, Kibroth-hattaavah, and Hazeroth prepared the Israelites for an even more serious failure at Kadesh.
