Numbers 12:14

Every kind of honour and happiness was bestowed upon you, and then was fulfilled that which is written, "My beloved ate and drank, and was enlarged and became fat, and kicked." [Deuteronomy 32:15] Hence flowed emulation and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity. So the worthless rose up against the honoured, those of no reputation against such as were renowned, the foolish against the wise, the young against those advanced in years. For this reason righteousness and peace are now far departed from you, inasmuch as every one abandons the fear of God, and has become blind in His faith, neither walks in the ordinances of His appointment, nor acts a part becoming a Christian, but walks after his own wicked lusts, resuming the practice of an unrighteous and ungodly envy, by which death itself entered into the world. [Wisdom 2:24]

For thus it is written: "And it came to pass after certain days, that Cain brought of the fruits of the earth a sacrifice unto God; and Abel also brought of the firstlings of his sheep, and of the fat thereof. And God had respect to Abel and to his offerings, but Cain and his sacrifices He did not regard. And Cain was deeply grieved, and his countenance fell. And God said to Cain, Why are you grieved, and why is your countenance fallen? If you offer rightly, but do not divide rightly, have you not sinned? Be at peace: your offering returns to yourself, and you shall again possess it. And Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go into the field. And it came to pass, while they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him." [Genesis 4:3-8] You see, brethren, how envy and jealousy led to the murder of a brother. Through envy, also, our father Jacob fled from the face of Esau his brother [Genesis 27:41-45]. Envy made Joseph be persecuted unto death, and to come into bondage. [Genesis 37:18-28] Envy compelled Moses to flee from the face of Pharaoh king of Egypt, when he heard these words from his fellow-countryman, "Who made you a judge or a ruler over us? Will you kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?" [Exodus 2:14] On account of envy, Aaron and Miriam had to make their abode without the camp. [Numbers 12:14-15] Envy brought down Dathan and Abiram alive to Hades, through the sedition which they excited against God's servant Moses. [Numbers 16:33] Through envy, David not only underwent the hatred of foreigners, but was also persecuted by Saul king of Israel. [1 Samuel 21:10-15]

But in what follows also the reading which was recited contains this, that Moses took the Ethiopian woman as his wife, and that Miriam and Aaron disparaged Moses, because he had taken the Ethiopian woman, and they say: "Has God spoken to Moses alone? Has He not also spoken to us?" "And the Lord heard," it says. And after these things He orders them to go out to the tabernacle of the testimony, and there, a certain judgment having been held, Miriam is made leprous until a fixed time, and thus is called back into the camp. That we may explain this more concisely, we say that Miriam had the figure of the former people, and that Moses, that is, the law of the Lord, passed over to marriage with this Ethiopian woman, who was gathered from among the nations. Her, therefore, Moses, that is, the spiritual law, took as wife; and on account of this deed Miriam, who is now the synagogue, is indignant and disparages together with Aaron, that is, with the priests and Pharisees. That people, therefore, disparages even to this day Moses, who is placed with us, and he seems base to them, because among us he does not teach the circumcision of the flesh, nor the observance of the sabbath, nor of the new moon, nor sacrifices of blood, but the circumcision of the heart, and rest from sinning, and feast days in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and sacrifices of praise, and admonishes that now not victims of cattle, but of vices, should be slain. God therefore judges concerning these things, and confirms the marriage of the Ethiopian woman, and indeed permits Moses gladly to dwell with her and to rest, but casts Miriam outside the camp and puts her far from the tabernacle of the testimony, with whom Aaron also is cast out. Moreover, Miriam is also made leprous. Look now upon that people and see how great in it is the leprosy of sin, how great the darkness of understanding, how great the foulness of observance, how great the baseness of aspect. Nevertheless this leprosy does not remain forever, but when the week of the world shall have begun to be completed, she shall be called back to the camp. For at the end of the world, when the fullness of the nations shall have entered in, then also all Israel shall be saved, and that is when the leprosy shall cease from the face of Miriam; for she shall receive the glory of faith, and shall receive the splendor of the knowledge of Christ, and her countenance shall be restored, when both shall become one flock and one shepherd. In which it must truly be said: "O the depth of the riches and of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God"; who so shut up all under sin, that He might have mercy upon all, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Just as the Apostle says: "all these things happened to them as figures, but they were written for our admonition," I ask what admonition we may receive from that which has been read to us, namely that Aaron and Miriam spoke against Moses and on account of this were rebuked, and Miriam indeed was even made a leper. And so great was the concern of this rebuke that, while Miriam was completing the space of a week in leprosy, the people of God did not make their journey toward the land of promise, nor was the tabernacle of testimony moved. First of all, meanwhile, I am admonished, and usefully and necessarily admonished, from this deed, not to disparage my brother, not to speak evil of my neighbor, not to open my mouth to detract not only from the saints but even from any of my neighbors whatsoever, seeing how great was the indignation of God from this, how great a vengeance proceeded. Indeed, against this sin we see God likewise moved with similar indignation even in the Psalms, and saying: "sitting you spoke against your brother, and against the son of your mother you laid a stumbling-block." And likewise also in another Psalm, from the person of the just man, who knows that this displeases God most greatly, it is said: "him that secretly detracted against his neighbor I persecuted." From all these words, therefore, of divine Scripture, as though from certain swords sharpened on both sides, let us cut away the vice of disparaging our brothers and detracting from the saints: for leprosy follows those who detract and speak evil. But after these things let us pass over from the moral matters to the mystical understanding; although in the earlier treatise a few things have already been said, nevertheless we will add what seems to have been lacking. Let us see, then, who it is that detracts from Moses, who speaks evil of him. Not only the Jew, but also the heretics, who do not receive the law and the prophets, they too detract from Moses. Indeed, they are accustomed even to fasten a charge upon him, saying that Moses was a murderer, for he killed an Egyptian, and they contrive many other things with blasphemous mouth either against him or against the prophets. These men, therefore, because they detract from Moses, have leprosy in their soul and are lepers in the inner man, and for that reason are held to be outside the camp of the Church of God. Whether, then, it be heretics who detract from Moses, or those who are of the Church who disparage their brothers and speak evil of their neighbors, all who are driven by this vice — there is no room for doubt that they are lepers in their soul. And Miriam indeed, by the intervention of Aaron the high priest, is healed on the seventh day; but we, if by the vice of disparagement we fall into the leprosy of the soul, until the end of the week of the world, that is, until the time of the resurrection, will remain lepers in soul and unclean; unless, while there is time for repentance, we are corrected and, turned to the Lord Jesus and supplicating him through repentance, we are cleansed from the uncleanness of our leprosy. But I think that not only that former people, nor only the heretics whom we mentioned above, detract from Moses, but also everyone who understands his writings badly and who receives the spiritual law carnally detracts from Moses, because he teaches men carnally concerning the words of the Spirit. You have heard what judgment the disparagers and evil-speakers gain for themselves, and what condemnation; hear now also how great a benefit they confer upon those whom they disparage. Never do we find that God spoke such great praises about Moses his servant as we now see said, when he was detracted from by men.

"And Moses cried out to the Lord, saying: God, I pray you, heal her." And whom did it behoove to pray to the Lord for the healing of that people except Moses? Moses prays for them; and perhaps this was what he was conversing about with the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was transformed on the mountain, asking of him that, when the fullness of the Gentiles had entered in, then all Israel might be saved. "And the Lord said to Moses: if her father had spat in her face, would she not be ashamed for seven days? Let her be separated for seven days outside the camp, and after this she shall enter in." What is it, "if her father had spat in her face, she would be ashamed for seven days"? We placed Miriam in the place of the synagogue; upon her, her father spat in the face. It is a sign of repudiation to be spat upon in the face. Indeed, it is written in the law, where it is commanded that a neighbor should marry the widow left by his neighbor, that if the neighbor should wish to repudiate the marriage, he should, unshod, be spat upon in the face, and this was given as a sign of repudiation. Hence therefore Miriam, that is, that people, when she is repudiated by God, is said to be spat upon in the face. We have also in another place the signification of spittle, when Isaiah says: "all the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are reckoned as spittle." It is shown therefore in this that that people too, like the other nations which are reckoned as spittle, has been cast off. And truly, if you consider that former honor, when the pontifical order flourished among them, when there were the insignia of priests, when the Levitical ministries, when the majesty of the temple, when the prophetic splendor, and when they enjoyed fellowships with the heavenly ones upon the earth — what an honor that was, what glory! And again, if you now look at how they bristle with such great disgrace, without temple, without altar, without sacrifice, without prophet, without priesthood, without any heavenly visitation, scattered through all the earth and living as fugitives: who would not evidently recognize that their father spat in their face and drenched their countenance with ignominy? Seven days, therefore, she is separated outside the camp. We have already said in the earlier passages too that these seven days designate the week of this world; for in the week of days the substances of all the visible creation seem to have been brought forth; for then the things which were not came to be. But in the week of the whole world, by a certain dispensation secret and known to God alone, the things which were then brought forth are unfolded. Meanwhile in this week, in which Miriam is sequestered, the camp of the children of Israel is not moved, but they stand shut up in one place and there is no advance whatever for them, until Miriam is cleansed from her leprosy.