MIRIAM: sister of Moses and Aaron, leader of the Hebrew women

Names in the Bible often say something about the person:

Miriam means 'prophetess' or 'lady'; the name points to Miriam as the sister of the tribal leader.
Moses appears to be Egyptian, as in Thutmoses (child of Thut); or it may simply mean child of the water. The Hebrew word mosheh also means 'pulled out of', as in pulled out of the water.
Aaron means 'honored or exalted one' - Aaron was the older brother of Moses.

Miriam was a leader of the Hebrew people during the Exodus, the great founding event of Judaism. The episodes we have about her are disjointed, and probably only represent a fraction of the stories originally told in the oral tradition of the Hebrew people.

Covered basket made of split reeds and palm fibres, possibly from the 18th dynasty period
of Egyptian history

The story of Miriam contains four different episodes:
1 Miriam saved her brother Moses, Exodus 2:1-10. This well-known story shows that the survival of the leader of the Exodus, Moses, depended on the courage and ingenuity of one young woman, his sister Miriam.

2 The song of Miriam, Exodus 15:20-21. This fragment of the Song of Miriam is one of the oldest poetic couplets in the Old Testament. It is an example of a literary genre devoted to celebrating military victories with triumphal poems.

3 Miriam's ordeal, Numbers 12. This story is about the authority of established law. Moses was the great lawgiver of the Hebrew people Moses' legislation formed the basis of Hebrew life. The story acknowledged that Miriam and Aaron were both popular leaders, but they were bound by the Law, represented by Moses.

4 Miriam's death, Numbers 20:1-2. Miriam died in a waterless place in the wilderness, but God subsequently caused water to appear there.

The Exodus was the great founding event of the Jewish people. It had three major themes:

Pogroms against the Jewish people were occurring long before Christ's birth. Shiprah and Puah not only refused to obey Pharaoh's order, but they actively worked against it, doing all they could to help the little boys survive.
When Pharoah saw his plan failing, he went to Plan B, ordering genocide by drowning for all male Hebrew babies. It was his own 'final solution'.
Shiprah and Puah, Bible Heroines

The Pharaoh in this story, thought to be Ramses II, grew concerned about the large number of foreign workers in Egypt.

He decided to limit the Hebrew population by ordering midwives to kill male babies born to Hebrew women.

Two of the midwives were woman called Shiprah and Puah. They would not co-operate with the Pharaoh's order, but instead let the babies live. When questioned, they said that the Hebrew women were vigorous and strong and gave birth before a mid-wife had time to arrive. In this way they circumvented the Pharaoh's command. He responded by ordering that all male babies be thrown into the Nile river.

'Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. She conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him for three months. When she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him, plastered it with bitumen and pitch, then put the child in it an placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.'

The baby was Moses, and the Hebrew woman, Jochebed, and her daughter Miriam saved him by hiding him among the reeds at the edge of the river. He was found by Pharaoh's own daughter, who adopted him. Cleverly, Miriam arranged that the real mother of the baby should be a wet-nurse for the baby.

This episode is presented in a video clip of 'Deliver Us' from 'The Prince of Egypt'.

Jochebed watches from her hiding place as Miriam
lifts the baby Moses up towards Pharaoh's daughter

Here's something to do: Tell the story from the point of view of each character, one at a time. You'll see how rich, how complex the story is.

Miriam's role as a leader of the Hebrew women was obviously more extensive than is shown in the biblical text. Despite her personal charisma and power, her story has to a large extent been subsumed into the story of her brother Moses.

Rulers in the ancient world led through force of arms and military might. Miriam and Moses proposed a different model of leadership. They

When the Hebrews were escaping from Egypt, they crossed what was probably a large papyrus marsh, called the Red Sea in the biblical text. They were led by Moses, Miriam, and her second brother Aaron.

The Egyptians had commanded that Hebrew babies be drowned. Now it was the Egyptians who were drowned, as the soggy ground of the marshland gave way under the hoofs of the horses and the wheels of their chariots.

Returning warriors are always greeted with an acknowledgment of their courage - in Miriam's time, as now

Then, as now, returning warriors were honoured when they returned from battle, greeted with an acknowledgment of their courage and self-sacrifice

When this happened, the Hebrews expressed their jubilation by composing songs of victory. A remnant of the song composed by Miriam appears in Exodus 15:20-21. As a leader of the Hebrew women, Miriam led them in ritual singing and dancing.

'Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing.

And Miriam sang to them:
"Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
Horse and rider he has thrown into the sea." '

Ritual singing by women was common in ancient Israel. Women sang particularly at victory celebrations, going out to meet returning warriors and greeting them with songs which expressed their relief, joy, and jubilation at the defeat of enemies.

The particular song that Miriam and the women sang may well have been a back-and-forth chant between the men and the women.

Philo of Alexandria (On A Contemplative Life), described Jewish women standing in rows, swaying and moving their arms and bodies in harmony, chanting rhythmical songs together.

These are the kind of musical instruments available in the ancient world

They accompanied their swaying movements with the metallic jingle of tambourines. Other musical instruments used at the time were gongs, harps, pipes and flutes, shofars (made from a ram's horn), trumpets, lutes and lyres (see image at right).

This part of Miriam's story described an incident at Hazeroth, as the Hebrew people wandered in search of their promised land.

Still from the film 'The Ten Commandments', with Charlton Heston as Moses

1. They questioned his marriage to the Cushite (Ethiopian or Midianite) woman, not because of any personal rivalry, but because Hebrews condemned marriage with a foreigner

2. They questioned Moses' authority over them, since Moses was the youngest of the three siblings. God had communicated with all three of them. Why then should Moses dominate the other two?

'Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?' And the Lord heard it and said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam 'Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.'
Read Numbers 12:1-9

Miriam's question 'has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses?' was a profound one.
It asked

As leader of the women and sister of Moses, Miriam had an unusually influential position in the community. This made her words and ideas important, because they were listened to, and they affected many people. This seems to be why her questioning of Moses was followed immediately by what the text calls leprosy, shocking to all who witnessed it.

One of the Ten Plagues of Egypt was boils and skin sores - it may have been what Miriam had.

'When the cloud went away from over the tent, Miriam had become leprous, as white as snow.' Her skin was likened to that of a stillborn foetus when it comes out of its mother’s womb.

So far, the plagues had attacked animals. Now they attacked the Egyptian themselves. Stinging, suppurating infections covered the whole body and caused swellings which became itching and painful boils. There was not a place in Egypt where living creatures were safe.
Gruesome photos of the ten Bible Plagues

In fact, the term 'leprosy' was used for a wide variety of skin diseases at that time; some of them were curable, some were not. Leviticus 13 and 14 give precise details of symptoms and treatments, both spiritual and medical.

In whatever guise it appeared, leprosy was seen as a punishment from God for some wrong-doing.

That being so, it was necessary to repent and reform - which Miriam had to do. She suffered the punishment of God, and atoned for her challenge to Moses' authority.

Miriam's leprosy was interpreted by the people as a dramatic sign that Moses was God's chosen leader, and that Miriam's and Aaron's authority, while still important, was less than Moses'.

Miriam, with her brothers Moses and Aaron, led the Hebrew people throughout the forty years when they reverted to the nomadic life, searching meanwhile for a land where they could settle.
For maps showing the route they took as they journeyed into Canaan, see MAPS.

The life they led was hard, and they must often have yearned for the stability and settled life they had left back in Egypt. Water was always scarce, the food supply was unreliable, and the physical living conditions were rigorous. Eventually these conditions took their toll on Miriam, and she died.

'The Israelites, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. Miriam died there, and was buried there.'
Read Numbers 20:1-2

Water, the symbol of life, had played quite a large part in Miriam's life. She saved her brother from the water; she led the song of victory after the parting of the Red Sea; she died in a waterless place. Immediately after her death, God gave abundant water to the people, in the form of a spring.

The little basket floated for a while, then lodged in the shallows of the river. Miriam had been following, and saw that it was not far from a bathing party - one of the Pharaoh's daughters was there with her retinue. The women saw the basket and investigated, finding not some flotsam but a live baby, probably crying with hunger.
Life of Moses

She expressed all the robust qualities that are best: courage and ingenuity in a dangerous situation, loyalty to her family, a love of music, story-telling and dance, and intellectual enquiry into questions about authority and social responsibility.