Go to Related Reading
About this book

Pseudo Jonathan Numbers

About this book
Chapter 12

And Miriam and Aharon spake against Mosheh words that were not becoming with respect to the Kushaitha whom the Kushaee had caused Mosheh to take when he had fled from Pharoh, but whom he had sent away because they had given him the queen of Kush, and he had sent her away.⁠ And they said, Hath the Lord spoken only with Mosheh, that he should be separated from the married life? Hath He not spoken with us also? And it was heard before the Lord. But the man Mosheh was more bowed down in his mind than all the children of men upon the face of the earth; neither cared he for their words. And the Lord said to Mosheh, to Aharon, and to Miriam, Come forth, you three, to the tabernacle. And those three went forth. And the Glory of the Lord was revealed in the Cloud of Glory, and He stood at the door of the tabernacle, and called Aharon and Miriam: and those two came forth. And He said, Hear now My words, while I speak. Have any of the prophets who have arisen from the days of old been spoken with as Mosheh hath been? To those (prophets) the Word of the Lord hath been revealed in apparition, speaking with them in a dream. Not so is the way with Mosheh My servant; in all the house of Israel My people he is faithful. Speaker with speaker have I spoken with him, who hath separated himself from the married life; but in vision, and not with mystery, revealed I Myself to him at the bush, and he beheld the likeness of My Shekinah. And why have you not feared to speak such words of My servant Mosheh? And the glory of the Lord's Shekinah ascended, and went. And the glorious Cloud of the Lord's Shekinah went up from above the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam was seized with the leprosy. And Aharon looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she had been smitten with leprosy. And Aharon said to Mosheh, I beseech of thee, my lord, not to lay upon us the sin we have foolishly committed, and by which we have transgressed. I entreat thee that Miriam, our sister, may not be defiled with leprosy in the tent, as the dead, for it is with her as with the infant which, having well fulfilled the time of the womb, perishes at the birth: so Miriam was with us in the land of Mizraim, seeing us in our captivity, our dispersion, our servitude; but now, when the time hath come for our going forth to possess the land of Israel behold she is kept back from us. I entreat thee, my lord, to pray for her, that her righteousness may not come to nought among the congregation. And Mosheh did pray, and seek mercy before the Lord, saying: I pray through the compassions of the merciful God, O Eloha, who hast power over the life of all flesh, heal her, I beseech thee. And the Lord said to Mosheh, If her father had corrected her, would she not have been disgraced, and secluded seven days? But to‑day, when I correct her, much more right is it that she should be dishonoured fourteen days: yet shall it suffice to seclude her seven days without the camp;⁠ and for thy righteousness will I make the Cloud of My Glory, the tabernacle, the ark, and all Israel, tarry until the time that she is healed, and then re‑admitted. And Miriam was kept apart without the camp for seven days, and the people went not forward until the time that Miriam was healed.

Texts in conversation

Compare Numbers 12:1 and Pseudo Jonathan Numbers 12:1

Hebrew Bible · Targum

Share:

Summary

Numbers 12 says that Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses for marrying a Cushite woman, a detail left unexplained. The Aramaic translation in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan explains this by saying she was Ethiopian royalty, a tradition also found in Josephus.

Passages

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

Pseudo Jonathan Numbers 12:1

Targum
And Miriam and Aharon spake against Mosheh words that were not becoming with respect to the Kushaitha whom the Kushaee had caused Mosheh to take when he had fled from Pharoh, but whom he had sent away because they had given him the queen of Kush, and he had sent her away. And they said, Hath the Lord spoken only with Mosheh, that he should be separated from the married life? Hath He not spoken with us also? And it was heard before the Lord. But the man Mosheh was more bowed down in his mind than all the children of men upon the face of the earth; neither cared he for their words.
300–1200 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Pseudo Jonathan Numbers

References

"... Adding Detail ... Vermes’s second category comes into play when the biblical text “lacks sufficient detail.” One Targumic example, out of many, must suffice here. According to Numbers 12:1, Moses had married a Cushite (Ethiopian) woman; however, this wife is not mentioned in any other passage, and the wife of Moses is otherwise said to be the Midianite woman Zipporah. The Targums fill in this gap in different ways. Onkelos is the most succinct ... Targum Pseudo-Jonathan fills in the gaps in a completely different way ... The targumist sets aside the idea that the woman was Zipporah, or that “Cushite” meant “beautiful,” and draws on an extrabiblical legend that Moses had married a queen or princess of the Ethiopians, as Josephus relates (Antiquities 2.251-53). There was in fact a wife prior to Zipporah, says the targumist, but she was wife in name only and Moses had no relations with her ..."
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.

Tags

Your feedback

Numbers 12:1 and Pseudo Jonathan Numbers 12:1

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library