Numbers 12:10

Summary

The verse describes the cloud lifting from over the tent, followed by the sudden discovery that Miriam had become leprous, white as snow. Aaron turns toward her and confirms the same condition. The Hebrew marks both discoveries with the same exclamatory structure, creating a doubled emphasis on the visual shock of what is seen.

Key words

• sar ("it departed", H5493G) — qal perfect, 3rd person, agreeing with the masculine noun anan ("cloud"); marks the cloud's withdrawal as a completed, prior event that sets the scene.
• hinneh ("there!", H2009) — an interjection used twice in this verse, functioning like a narrative spotlight that shifts attention abruptly to what is suddenly visible (first the leprosy, then its confirmation by Aaron).
• metzora'at ("leprous", H6879) — pual passive participle, feminine singular, appearing twice with identical form; as a passive participle it describes Miriam as one acted upon by the condition rather than as an agent, and its repetition ties the two hinneh clauses together.
• vayifen ("and he turned", H6437G) — qal verb with narrative vav, moving the story forward in sequence: Aaron's turning is the next event after the cloud's departure and the initial sighting.
• ke-shaleg ("like the snow", H7950 with H9004) — the comparative preposition attached to "snow" specifies the visual quality (whiteness) of the leprous skin, not its intensity or type.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of short clauses linked by ve- ("and") and the narrative vav on vayifen, producing a paratactic sequence typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative: first the cloud's departure (sar), then the discovery introduced by hinneh, then Aaron's action (vayifen), then a second discovery again introduced by hinneh. This repetition of hinneh + metzora'at is a structural mirroring: the narrator's own report of what is seen (first hinneh) is echoed by Aaron's perception of the same fact (second hinneh), without any additional verb of seeing in the Hebrew for the second instance — the bare hinneh stands in for "and behold" needing no verb "to see."

The word metzora'at is grammatically a passive participle, describing Miriam's state as something that has happened to her, consistent with the pual (intensive passive) stem's function of marking a resulting condition. The comparison ka-shaleg ("like the snow") modifies only the participle's descriptive quality (whiteness), governed by the preposition ke- ("like").

Differences between versions

The Vulgate expands the second hinneh clause into a subordinate construction — "cumque respexisset eam Aaron, et vidisset perfusam lepra" ("when Aaron had looked at her and seen her covered with leprosy") — introducing an explicit verb of seeing ("vidisset") not present in the Hebrew's bare hinneh. The Vulgate also adds "apparuit candens lepra" ("appeared shining with leprosy") for the first instance, an interpretive expansion beyond the Hebrew's simple hinneh mirNyam metzora'at. The LXX renders metzora'at both times as the adjective λεπρῶσα ("leprous"), a more literal parallel to the Hebrew's repeated participle than the Vulgate's varied phrasing.