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LXX Numbers

Septuagint

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Chapter 12

1 And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, because of the Ethiopian woman whom Moses took; for he had taken an Ethiopian woman. 2 And they said, Has the Lord spoken to Moses only? has he not also spoken to us? and the Lord heard it. 3 And the man Moses was very meek beyond all the men that were upon the earth. 4 And the Lord said immediately to Moses and Miriam and Aaron, Come forth all three of you to the tabernacle of witness. And the three came forth to the tabernacle of witness. 5 And the Lord descended in a pillar of a cloud, and stood at the door of the tabernacle of witness; and Aaron and Miriam were called; and both came forth. 6 And he said to them, Hear my words: If there should be of you a prophet to the Lord, I will be made known to him in a vision, and in sleep I will speak to him. 7 My servant Moses is not so; he is faithful in all my house. 8 I will speak to him mouth to mouth in appearance, and not in riddles; and he has seen the glory of the Lord;⁠ and why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? 9 And the great anger of the Lord was upon them, and he departed. 10 And the cloud departed from the tabernacle; and, look, Miriam was leprous, white as snow; and Aaron looked upon Miriam, 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. 15 And Miriam was separated outside the camp seven days; and the people did not move forward till Miriam was cleansed. 16 And afterwards the people set forth from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.

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Compare Numbers 12:12 and LXX Numbers 12:12

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

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.

Passages

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.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Numbers

LXX Numbers 12:12

Septuagint
10 And the cloud departed from the tabernacle; and, look, Miriam was leprous, white as snow; and Aaron looked upon Miriam, 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.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Numbers

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 ..."
W. Hall Harris, NET Bible (Biblical Studies, 2019), 319.
"... The tiqqune sopherim, or emendations of the scribes, represents another way some ancient writers responded to specific portrayals of God they felt were inappropriate. At specific places, it appears that scribes altered the Hebrew text of the Old Testament to modify views of God they found offensive. These modifications are thought to have been made between 400 BCE and 100 CE. Although it is unclear exactly how many changes of this nature were made, tradition puts the total at eighteen (Genesis 18:22; Numbers 11:15; 12:12; 1 Samuel 3:13; 2 Samuel 16:12; 20:1; 1 Kings 12:16; 2 Chronicles 10:16; Job 7:20; 32:3; Psalm 106:20; Jeremiah 2:11; Lamentations 3:20; Ezekiel 8:17; Hosea 4:7; Zechariah 2:8; Habakkuk 1:12; Malachi 1:13) ..."
Eric A. Seibert, Disturbing Divine Behavior: Troubling Old Testament Images of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2009), 56.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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