00:00A reading from the book of Numbers, chapter 12, verses 1 to 13.
00:05Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on the pretext
00:08of the marriage he had contracted with a Cushite woman.
00:12They complained, Is it through Moses alone that the Lord speaks?
00:16Does he not speak through us also?
00:18And the Lord heard this.
00:20Now Moses himself was by far the meekest man on the face of the earth.
00:24So at once the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam,
00:27Come out, you three, to the meeting tent.
00:30And the three of them went.
00:32Then the Lord came down in the column of cloud
00:34and standing at the entrance of the tent, called Aaron and Miriam.
00:38When both came forward he said, Now listen to the words of the Lord.
00:43Should there be a prophet among you, in visions will I reveal myself to him,
00:47in dreams will I speak to him, not so with my servant Moses.
00:51Throughout my house he bears my trust.
00:53Face to face I speak to him, plainly and not in riddles.
00:57The presence of the Lord he beholds.
01:00Why then, did you not fear to speak against my servant Moses?
01:05So angry was the Lord against them that when he departed,
01:08and the cloud withdrew from the tent, there was Miriam, a snow-white leper.
01:13When Aaron turned and saw her a leper he said to Moses,
01:16Ah, my Lord, please do not charge us with the sin,
01:19that we have foolishly committed.
01:21Let her not thus be like the stillborn babe,
01:24that comes forth from its mother's womb,
01:27with its flesh half consumed.
01:29Then Moses cried to the Lord,
01:31Please not this.
01:32Pray heal her.
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