Texts in Conversation
2 Chronicles 26 and Numbers 12 likely reflect a distinct source in Hebrew Bible tradition that connected physical disease as punishment for sin, distinct from the priestly source that did not make this connection.
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Numbers 12:10
Hebrew Bible
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. 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.”
2 Chronicles 26:19
Hebrew Bible
17 Azariah the priest and eighty other brave priests of the Lord followed him in. 18 They confronted King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not proper for you, Uzziah, to offer incense to the Lord. That is the responsibility of the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who are consecrated to offer incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have disobeyed and the Lord God will not honor you!” 19 Uzziah, who had an incense censer in his hand, became angry. While he was ranting and raving at the priests, a skin disease appeared on his forehead right there in front of the priests in the Lord’s temple near the incense altar. 20 When Azariah the high priest and the other priests looked at him, there was a skin disease on his forehead. They hurried him out of there; even the king himself wanted to leave quickly because the Lord had afflicted him.
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Notes and References
"... The fact that the Priestly writers did not make a connection between צרעת and transgressions is remarkable, especially since other biblical sources take this disorder to be an indicator of sinful behavior. Miriam, for example, suffers צרעת for contesting Moses (Numbers 12:10–12) while King Uzziah is punished with צרעת for the illegitimate offering of sacrifices (2 Chronicles 26:10–20). A similar correlation between צרעת and sin is reflected in 2 Kings 5:27 where Gehazi is afflicted with צרעת for stealing and lying ..."
Cranz, Isabel
Atonement and Purification: Priestly and Assyro-Babylonian Perspectives on Sin and Its Consequences
(p. 131) Mohr Siebeck, 2017
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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