Texts in Conversation
Numbers 12 is one of the “tiqqune soferim,” where scribes changed disrespectful language. The change from “our flesh” and “our mother” to “its flesh” and “its mother” may have removed the implicit shame of Moses’ family having a disfigured child.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Numbers 12:12
Hebrew Bible
10 After the cloud had departed from above the tent, there was Miriam, leprous like snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and realized that she was leprous. 11 So Aaron said to Moses, “O my lord, please do not hold this sin against us, in which we have acted foolishly and have sinned! 12 Do not let her be like a baby born dead, whose flesh is half consumed when it comes out of its mother’s womb!” 13 Then Moses cried to the Lord, “Heal her now, O God.” 14 The Lord said to Moses, “If her father had only spit in her face, would she not have been disgraced for seven days? Shut her out from the camp seven days, and afterward she can be brought back in again.”
Date: 5th century BCE (final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Numbers 12:12
Septuagint
10 And the cloud departed from the tabernacle; and, look, Mariam was leprous, white as snow; and Aaron looked upon Mariam, and, look, she was leprous. 11 And Aaron said to Moses, Please, my lord, do not lay sin upon us, for we were ignorant of how we sinned. 12 Let her not be as it were like death, as an abortion coming out of a mother's womb, and it devours the half of her flesh. 13 And Moses cried to the Lord, saying, God, Please, heal her. 14 And the Lord said to Moses, If her father had only spit in her face, would she not be ashamed seven days? let her be set apart seven days outside the camp, and afterwards she shall come in.
Date: 3rd century BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The words “its mother” and “its flesh” are among the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” According to this tradition the text originally had here “our mother” and “our flesh,” but the ancient scribes changed these pronouns from the first person to the third person. Apparently they were concerned that the image of Moses’ mother giving birth to a baby with physical defects of the sort described here was somehow inappropriate, given the stature and importance of Moses ..."
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