Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 237
11:33–12:14
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quail all that day and throughout the night and all the next day, too. No one
gathered less than fifty bushels! They spread the quail all around the camp
to dry. But while they were gorging themselves on the meat—while it was
still in their mouths—the anger of the Lord blazed against the people,
and he struck them with a severe plague. So that place was called Kibroth-
hattaavah (which means “graves of gluttony”) because there they buried
the people who had craved meat from Egypt. From K
ibroth-hattaavah the
Israelites traveled to Hazeroth, where they stayed for some time.
While they were at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because
he had married a Cushite woman. They said, “Has the Lord spoken only
through Moses? Hasn’t he spoken through us, too?” But the Lord heard
them. (Now Moses was very humble—more humble than any other person on earth.)
So immediately the Lord called to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam and said,
“Go out to the Tabernacle, all three of you!” So the three of them went to
the Tabernacle. Then the Lord descended in the pillar of cloud and stood
at the entrance of the Tabernacle. “Aaron and Miriam!” he called, and they
stepped forward. And the Lord said to them, “Now listen to what I say:
“If there were prophets among you,
I, the Lord, would reveal myself in visions.
I would speak to them in dreams.
But not with my servant Moses.
Of all my house, he is the one I trust.
I speak to him face to face,
clearly, and not in riddles!
He sees the Lord as he is.
So why were you not afraid
to criticize my servant Moses?”
The Lord was very angry with them, and he departed. As the cloud
moved from above the Tabernacle, there stood Miriam, her skin as white
as snow from leprosy. When Aaron saw what had happened to her, he
cried out to Moses, “Oh, my master! Please don’t punish us for this sin we
have so foolishly committed. Don’t let her be like a stillborn baby, already
decayed at birth.”
So Moses cried out to the Lord, “O God, I beg you, please heal her!”
But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had done nothing more than
spit in her face, wouldn’t she be defiled for seven days? So keep her outside
the camp for seven days, and after that she may be accepted back.”
