Moses' Cushite Wife echoes Hosea's Woman of Harlotries: Exposure of Unfaithfulness in the Wilderness

ABSTRACT

This paper suggests that Numbers 12 implies that the Cushite woman whom Moses marries is an immoral woman and that Moses' marriage with her is based on an implicit divine command which echoes the one God gives Hosea when exhorting him to marry a woman of harlotries. In both cases God wants the prophetic protagonist to experience infidelity, thus enabling him to experience what God feels like when Israel acts unfaithfully to Him. However, after experiencing the unfaithfulness of the Israelites in the narrative of the scouts Moses himself demonstrates unfaithfulness in Meribah. Moses' inability to respond appropriately to Israel's unfaithfulness at Baal-peor, an incident mentioned in Hos 9,10, reflects his inability to contend with the Israelites in the manner of Hosea.