Bible Strands
Numbers 12:14
But the LORD answered Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; after that she may be brought back in.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD addresses Moses immediately after Moses intercedes for Miriam’s healing, issuing a command for her temporary confinement outside the Israelite camp.
The words — The Hebrew יָרַק (ya.Rak) denotes the physical act of spitting, combined with בְּפָנֶיהָ (be./fa.Nei./ha) for “in her face,” establishing a recognized cultural penalty of shame.
The thread — The text explicitly compares Miriam’s seven-day disgrace to a father’s spitting in her face, a motif that appears in Deuteronomy 25:9 and Job 30:10, while the confinement directive parallels the temporary camp exclusion pattern found in Numbers 5:2.
Why it lands — The passage requires the community to recognize that divine judgment operates through established social consequences, mandating that all travel cease until the disciplined individual is formally readmitted.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the Lord said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 25:9 his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and declare, “This is what is done to the man who will not maintain his brother’s line.”
- Job 30:10 They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
- Numbers 5:2 “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.
- Isaiah 50:6 I offered My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who tore out My beard. I did not hide My face from scorn and spittle.
- Leviticus 13:45 A diseased person must wear torn clothes and let his hair hang loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’
- Leviticus 14:8 The one being cleansed must wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe with water; then he will be ceremonially clean. Afterward, he may enter the camp, but he must remain outside his tent for seven days.
- 2 Chronicles 26:20 When Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned to him and saw his leprous forehead, they rushed him out. Indeed, he himself hurried to get out, because the LORD had afflicted him.
- Job 17:6 He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.
- Matthew 26:67 Then they spit in His face and struck Him. Others slapped Him
- Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live?