Texts in Conversation
In Numbers, Moses’ wife is described as a “Cushite,” suggesting an African origin. The Samaritan Pentateuch interprets “Cushite” as “beautiful,” following Samaritan tradition that Moses had only one wife.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Numbers 12:1
Hebrew Bible
1 Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married (for he had married an Ethiopian woman). 2 They said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Has he not also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard it. 3 (Now the man Moses was very humble, more so than any man on the face of the earth.)
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Samaritan Numbers 12:1
Samaritan Penteteuch
Samaritan
1 And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the beautiful woman whom he had married, for he had married a beautiful woman. 2 And they said: “Has Shema indeed spoken only through Moses? Look, he has also spoken through us!” And Shema heard [it]. 3 Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the face of the earth.
Date: 130–120 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... 12:1 “The beautiful” — The standard translation and also Jewish commentary suggest “black woman” = “Cushi”. However, the Israelite Samaritans pronounce this word as “Kaashet”. Maryaam and Aahrron spoke about Seebbooraa, Mooshe’s only wife, who was sent back to her father’s house after the incident at the inn. The Israelite Samaritan sages made a comparison between the quality of Seebbooraa as beautiful = “Kaashet” and Deuteronomy 32:15, = “Kaasheetaa” = “You became handsome.” This attitude of the Israelite Samaritan sages came from the understanding that Mooshe married only one wife, and once he became absolutely devoted to his mission he never got married again ..."
Benyamim Tsedaka and Sharon Sullivan, eds., The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah: First English Translation Compared with the Masoretic Version, trans. Benyamim Tsedaka (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 336.
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