9. Miriam. See Num. 12. Miriam was one of three prominent leaders of Israel (Micah 6:4). Yet she was suddenly smitten with the dreadful disease leprosy, and driven from the camp of Israel for seven days (Num. 12:14). Neither her outstanding position nor her personal relation to Moses protected her from it. The poorest and most miserable leper was treated no more harshly than a leper from some wealthy or officially prominent family. There was a tendency among the Jews to view all cases of leprosy as divine judgments, but it is not reasonable to take such a view of all such instances (Luke 13:1-6). Leprosy is a type of sin. The spiritual leper, whose very soul is diseased, can find no cure for his malady outside of Jesus Christ.