Person · one of several with this name
Miriam
In Exodus and Numbers, the sister of Moses and Aaron, called a prophetess; after the crossing of the sea she leads the women in song with a tambourine.
See Numbers 26:59, Exodus 15:20, Exodus 15:21.
A tambourine marks Miriam in the reading view: she took a tambourine and the women followed her, dancing (Exodus 15:20).
Mentioned in 12 verses across 5 books, first in Exodus 15:20. The verses below are the ones linked to this person (the Theographic dataset, with our sourced corrections).
How artists have pictured her
3 works from different centuries and traditions. Each shows how its time and place imagined Miriam, not how she looked.
In these stories
In the Bible
The first 10 of 12 verses, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.
Exodus
- Exodus 15:20
Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her with tambourines and dancing.
- Exodus 15:21
And Miriam sang back to them: “Sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; the horse and rider He has thrown into the sea.”
Numbers
- Numbers 12:1
Then Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married, for he had taken a Cushite wife.
- Numbers 12:4
And suddenly the LORD said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “You three, come out to the Tent of Meeting.” So the three went out,
- Numbers 12:5
and the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance to the Tent, and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them had stepped forward,
- Numbers 12:10
As the cloud lifted from above the Tent, suddenly Miriam became leprous, white as snow. Aaron turned toward her, saw that she was leprous,
- Numbers 12:15
So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until she was brought in again.
- Numbers 20:1
In the first month, the whole congregation of Israel entered the Wilderness of Zin and stayed in Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.
- Numbers 26:59
and Amram’s wife was named Jochebed. She was also a daughter of Levi, born to Levi in Egypt. To Amram she bore Aaron, Moses, and their sister Miriam.
Deuteronomy
- Deuteronomy 24:9
Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the journey after you came out of Egypt.
Dictionary
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), as attached to this record by Theographic. The entry is for the name and can describe more than one person who bore it. Easton wrote in 1897, and some of his views are now debated.
Read Easton’s entry
The sister of Moses and Aaron (Ex. 2:4-10; 1 Chr. 6:3). Her name is prominent in the history of the Exodus. She is called “the prophetess” (Ex. 15:20). She took the lead in the song of triumph after the passage of the Red Sea. She died at Kadesh during the second encampment at that place, toward the close of the wanderings in the wilderness, and was buried there (Num. 20:1).