Numbers 12:12

12 (and) that this woman be not made as dead, and as a dead born thing that is cast out of the mother's womb; lo! now the half of her flesh is devoured, or over-covered, with leprosy (lo! now half of her flesh hath been devoured by the leprosy!).

Numbers 12:12 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 12:12

Let her not be as one dead
As she was in a ceremonial sense, being to be shut up and excluded from the society of people, and as defiling by touching as a dead carcase; and, in a natural sense, her flesh, by the disease upon her, was become as dead flesh, putrid and rotten, and unless miraculously cured it would issue in her death:

of whom the flesh is half consumed, when he cometh out of his mother's
womb;
like an abortive, or one stillborn, that has been dead some time in its mother's womb; and therefore when brought forth its flesh is almost wasted away, or at least half consumed: and in such a plight and condition was Miriam already, or quickly would be, through the force of her disease.

Numbers 12:12 In-Context

10 And the cloud went away, that was on the tabernacle, and lo! Marie appeared shining with leprosy (and lo! Miriam had become leprous), white as snow. And when Aaron beheld her, and saw her besprinkled with leprosy,
11 he said to Moses, My lord, I beseech thee, put thou not this sin upon us, which we did follily (for we acted foolishly),
12 (and) that this woman be not made as dead, and as a dead born thing that is cast out of the mother's womb; lo! now the half of her flesh is devoured, or over-covered, with leprosy (lo! now half of her flesh hath been devoured by the leprosy!).
13 And Moses cried to the Lord, and said, Lord, I beseech thee, heal thou her.
14 To whom the Lord answered, If her father had spit into her face, whether she ought not to be full-filled with shame, namely seven days? Therefore be she separated out of the tents by seven days, and afterward she shall be called again (And so let her be set apart from the tents for seven days, and then she shall be called back again).
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.