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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.

Texts in conversation

Compare Numbers 12:8 and LXX Numbers 12:8 and Onkelos Numbers 12:8

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint · Targum

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Summary

In Numbers 12, Moses sees God and speaks with Him face to face, and this raises theological questions for translators who avoid physical descriptions of God. The Greek Septuagint and Aramaic Targum resolve this by referring to God’s “glory.”

Passages

Numbers 12:8

Hebrew Bible
7 My servant Moses is not like this; he is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I will speak face to face, openly and not in riddles, and he will see the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” 9 The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he departed.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Numbers

LXX Numbers 12:8

Septuagint
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.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Numbers

Onkelos Numbers 12:8

Targum
7 But My servant Moses is different; he is trusted among all My people. 8 I speak with him directly; in a vision, not in riddles; and he shall see the likeness of the glory of the Lord. Why, then, is it that you have not been afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses? 9 And the displeasure of the Lord was strong against them, and He went up.
50–500 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Onkelos Numbers

References

"... when God is the object, not the subject, of bodily actions, the targumists were faced with a problem. It was obvious that the human actions themselves could not be metaphorical; but the object of them had to be understood in a different way. when the Bible says that someone saw God, it is clear that they saw something, and that something had to be identifiable as God, without suggesting that God himself was visible in bodily form. One solution to this is to introduce God’s “glory”, understood as a visible bright light ... (Compare also the Septuagint and Targum Onkelos at Numbers 12:8) ..."
Edward M. Cook, “The Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in the Targums,” in A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism, ed. Matthias Henze (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 92–117.

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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  • How are you dating the Masoretic text older than the Septuagint we don’t have the paleo Hebrew the original scriptures were written in. Why do you keep referring to modern Hebrew as the original text when the Septuagint is closer to the original Hebrew text you are lying

    zachary wilde, September 10, 2025

Numbers 12:8 and LXX Numbers 12:8 and Onkelos Numbers 12:8

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