In Hebrew this verse begins with the waw conjunction, which both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation omit. An explicit narrative connector may be necessary in some languages to properly begin this new episode. New Revised Standard Version achieves this by moving the final clause of 11.35 to the beginning of this verse, saying “While they were at Hazeroth” (similarly New Living Translation).

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses …: Miriam was Moses’ sister and Aaron was his brother (see 1 Chr 6.3). (Tradition associates Miriam with the unnamed older sister of Moses in Exo 2.) The sister is mentioned before the brother here, and the Hebrew verb rendered spoke is feminine singular (literally “she spoke”). This may well be because she is the major character in this chapter and perhaps initiated the complaint against Moses. If it is awkward to keep this order in translation, it may be possible to say “Miriam—and Aaron as well—spoke against Moses….” In any case, a footnote may be needed to point out that Miriam was the sister of Moses. Spoke against may be rendered “criticized” (Good News Translation) or “began to find fault with” (Revised English Bible). Moses’ marriage to a Cushite woman is only the pretext for the real issue that provoked this verbal attack, namely, Moses’ position and prophetic standing (see verse 2). There is no indication in the Hebrew that Miriam and Aaron only spoke to others and that Moses did not hear about their verbal attack. So if it is necessary to avoid that impression, it may be helpful to say “criticized openly.”

Because of the Cushite woman whom he had married: Cush was the region of the Upper Nile River that was later called Nubia. It included the areas of what is today southern Egypt and northern Sudan. The name Cush already occurs in Babylonian, Old Persian, and Egyptian. The traditional identification of Cush with Ethiopia is only based on the Septuagint (see Isa 20.3; Nahum 3.5). The footnote in Good News Translation suggests that Cushite could mean “Midianite.” If so, then the Cushite woman would refer to Zipporah, Moses’ wife from Midian (Exo 2.21). However, there is no support for this view; it is only based on Hab 3.7, where “Cushan” (not “Cush”) and “Midian” are mentioned in parallel lines. It seems more likely that a second marriage of Moses is in view here (so Rashbam), with a woman perhaps from the rabble of strangers mentioned in 11.4. The Cushites were descendants of Ham (see Gen 10.6).

For he had married a Cushite woman: This clause may seem repetitive, but the repetition and the Hebrew particle ki rendered for are used for emphasis and seem to suggest an underlying racial issue in addition to the problem of leadership (compare the use of “Ruth the Moabitess” in Ruth 2.2, 21). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh solves this stylistic problem by rendering this clause as direct speech. For this whole verse New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married: ‘He married a Cushite woman!’ ” This rendering brings out well the emphasis of the repetition in Hebrew. In languages where direct speech cannot be used in this way, Good News Translation may be followed, perhaps replacing “for it” at the end of the verse with the more emphatic expression “because of this.” Good News Translation reverses the order of the clauses in this verse for a chronological order.

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .