Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MIRIAM

(Heb. miryām)

1. A prophet(ess) remembered for leading the Israelites in singing after their deliverance from the Egyptians at the Red Sea (Exod. 15:20-21). Many scholars consider this attribution of leadership in singing more ancient than that attributed to Moses and the Israelites in the earlier verses of Exod. 15. Miriam is identified as the sister of Moses and Aaron in the genealogies of Num. 26:59; 1 Chr. 6:3(MT 5:29). The three are named together as leaders of the wilderness era in Mic. 6:4. It is possible that the sibling relationship was not biological but rather the creation of later tradition that sought to emphasize their roles in Israel’s leadership. This possibility suggests to many scholars that a more extensive tradition about Miriam may once have existed.

Although Miriam is not mentioned by name in Exod. 2, , tradition assumes that she is the older sister of the infant Moses who approaches the pharaoh’s daughter after the baby is discovered in the floating basket. Miriam’s proposal to find a Hebrew nurse serves to reunite the child with his mother.

After her leadership in singing at the Red Sea, we next hear of Miriam when she and Aaron together challenge Moses’ sole authority to speak to the people on God’s behalf, as well as Moses’ marriage to a Cushite wife (Num. 12). The narrative makes clear God’s displeasure with Aaron and Miriam and God’s rejection of their claims against Moses. Yet it is reported that Miriam is punished by affliction with a skin disease that turns her white (probably to be viewed in contrast to the very dark skin of Moses’ wife of Cushite descent), while Aaron is not punished at all. Upon realizing this situation, Aaron quickly petitions, “do not punish us,” thus reaffirming his joint complicity with Miriam while begging for her healing before he too is so afflicted. God announces that Miriam’s punishment will be only temporary; after seven days of purification outside the camp she rejoins the community and the wilderness journey proceeds. Various theories have been put forward to explain why Miriam alone is punished. Prominent explanations include Israel’s attitudes toward priesthood (no one could serve as priest while having a skin disease; Aaron was high priest) and stages in the transmission of the tradition (perhaps the story was originally only about Miriam, with Aaron being added later). Despite such theories, the reality remains that in this story a woman and a man together commit the same sin, but the woman is punished and the man is not.

Miriam’s death is recorded in a brief notice in Num. 20:1. It is symbolically significant of Miriam’s full status as a leader alongside her two brothers that her death is mentioned at this point, for in the immediately following story Moses and Aaron lose their chance to enter the Promised Land (Num. 20:12). Although Aaron’s death is reported only in Num. 27 and Moses’ death in Deut. 34 (the two remaining stops on the wilderness journey), the three are held together here in Num. 20 as leaders who all will die outside the land.

Bibliography. R. J. Burns, Has the Lord Indeed Spoken Only through Moses? SBLDS 84 (Atlanta, 1987); P. Trible, “Bringing Miriam Out of the Shadows,” BibRev 5/1 (1989): 14-25, 34.

Katharine Doob Sakenfeld

2. A Judahite among the descendants of Ezrah (1 Chr. 4:17). The NRSV reconstructs this difficult text, taking Miriam as the offspring of Mered and the pharaoh’s daughter Bithiah.

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MIRIAM

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)