🔢WEB · Numbers 12:16
What does Numbers 12:16 mean?
"Afterward the people traveled from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran."
— Numbers 12:16 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, “Heal her, God, I beg you!”
Yahweh said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, shouldn’t she be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut up outside of the camp seven days, and after that she shall be brought in again.”
Miriam was shut up outside of the camp seven days, and the people didn’t travel until Miriam was brought in again.
Afterward the people traveled from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.
Explanation
Numbers 12:16 records a simple, almost administrative statement: the Israelites left the place called Hazeroth and moved to set up camp in the wilderness of Paran. On the surface it is a travel notice, the kind of verse that marks the passage of time and the physical progress of Israel's journey. Yet its placement gives it real significance, since it closes out a chapter that had just narrated a painful family and leadership crisis.
The book of Numbers records Israel's forty years of wilderness wandering between the exodus from Egypt and their arrival at the edge of the Promised Land. Numbers 12 tells the story of Miriam and Aaron speaking against Moses, God's rebuke of them, Miriam being struck with a skin disease as a result, and Moses interceding for her healing. After seven days of quarantine out
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