12 One day, Miryam and Aharon spoke out against Mosheh because he’d taken an Ethiopian woman (Kushitess) as a wife, 2 and they challenged, “Did Yahweh really only speak through Mosheh? Doesn’t he also speak through us?” Yahweh heard what they said. 3 (Now Mosheh was actually a very humble man—more humble than anyone else alive.)

4 Then Yahweh suddenly told Mosheh, Aharon, and Miryam, “Go out, the three of you, to the sacred tent.” So the three of them went there. 5 and Yahweh descended in a pillar of cloud and stood at the tent opening and called Aharon and Miryam, and the two of them stepped forward, 6 and he said, “Listen to me. When there’s a prophet of Yahweh, I make myself known to him in a vision and speak to him in a dream, 7 but I don’t do that to my servant Mosheh. He’s the most faithful of all my people[ref] 8 and I speak to him directly—face-to-face, and not in parables, and he’s able to see my form. So why weren’t you afraid to speak against my servant Mosheh?”

9 So Yahweh was angry at Miryam and Aharon. Then he departed 10 and the cloud moved from the tent. Then wow, Miryam had leprosy—her skin had gone as white as snow. As Aharon turned to her, he saw, wow, she was leprous, 11 and he begged Mosheh, “Please, my master, please don’t make us suffer for our foolish disrespect and disobedience. 12 Don’t let her be like a still-born baby that’s already starting to decompose when its mother gives birth to it.

13 So Mosheh pleaded with Yahweh, “God, please, please heal her!”

14 “If her father had spit in her face, wouldn’t she stay inside in disgrace for seven days?” Yahweh replied. “So she must be put outside the camp for seven days, then after that, she can enter again.”[ref] 15 So Miryam was sent outside the camp for seven days, and the people didn’t move on until after she was allowed to return. 16 After that, the people left Hatserot and set up camp in the Paran wilderness.