Sivan 22 – Suddenly Miriam became leperous

June 27, 2024

Sivan 22, 5784; from sunset June 27, 2024, to sunset June 28, 2024

This is the name “Mosheh” (מֺשֶׁה – Moses) as seen in the Dead Sea Scrolls, written over two thousand years ago.

Today in the Bible is the traditional date for when God punished Miriam on the day that she and Aaron spoke against Moses because of his new wife. Let’s read what the Bible has to say.

Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. So they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard it. (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.)

Suddenly the LORD said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting!” So the three came out. Then the LORD came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both went forward.

Then He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?”

So the anger of the LORD was aroused against them, and He departed. And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, as white as snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and there she was, a leper.

So Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord! Please do not lay this sin on us, in which we have done foolishly and in which we have sinned. Please do not let her be as one dead, whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb!”

So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “Please heal her, O God, I pray!” Then the LORD said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and afterward she may be received again.”

So Miriam was shut out of the camp seven days, and the people did not journey till Miriam was brought in again. And afterward the people moved from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran. – Numbers 12 (NKJ)

“Come out, you three!” I can just imagine the tone of God’s voice when He spoke those words. I wonder if He also said, “Don’t make Me come down there!” It’s good to know that my siblings and I weren’t the only ones who ever got into it once in a while; I mean, come on, we’re talking Moses, Aaron, and Miriam here! Who would have ever thought that they argued, especially when they were in their 80s. They should know better by now!

It’s also interesting that the argument begins around Moses’ second wife. Oftentimes the second wife has a harder time integrating into the family; but how, then, does the argument jump from the Ethiopian woman to who’s the bestest prophet?

Seems like everybody’s a little grumpy and a little on edge. That can happen when you’ve been on a long road trip. And now, we find that even Moses, Aaron, and Miriam are susceptible. But when “Dad got out the belt,” everybody sobered up and Aaron and Moses go to bat for their sister. Moses prayed for her healing and God heard his cry. In the end the siblings still loved each other and probably felt a little sheepish about arguing in the first place. Miriam is grounded for a week…come right home after school, no TV, no friends over to visit, and probably some extra chores.

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