Miriam

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

The Old Testament Hebrew equates to Mary in New Testament and Mariamne, Herod's wife and victim.

1. Sister of Aaron and Moses, oldest child of Amram and Jochebed. At least 12 or 13 at Moses' birth, for she is called ( Exodus 2:8) "the maid," Halmah , implying one of marriageable age. Aaron being three years older than Moses was nine years younger than her. She watched her infant brother in the ark on the Nile, and suggested to Pharaoh's daughter the mother as a nurse. In  Micah 6:4 God mentions among benefits conferred on Israel, "I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam," Miriam as the leader of and pattern to Israel's women. She as "the prophetess, the sister of Aaron," with timbrel in hand, led the female choir who, with timbrels (round tambourines, an Egyptian word) and dances following her, sang the song of triumph at the Red Sea; they responsively took up the first strophe of the men's song ( Exodus 15:1-20-21; so  Judges 11:34;  1 Samuel 18:6).

Her prophetic gift was perverted into a ground of jealousy of Moses, whose foreign Ethiopian wife, just espoused, to Miriam's disappointment had supplanted her from the influence which she had with Moses after Zipporah's death. "Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married (Numbers 12) ... Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath He not spoken also by us?" But the phrase "sister of Aaron" (a phrase not likely to have been applied to Miriam by a later writer than Moses) marks her as ranking, not with Moses but with Aaron, and like him subordinate to Moses, the mediator of the Old Testament, and standing to Aaron "instead of God" ( Exodus 4:16). God's reply implies that, though receiving prophetical revelations, she did not receive them "mouth to mouth apparently" and immediately as Moses, who "beheld the similitude of the Lord," whereas she and others saw only in a "vision" or "dream."

In wrath God withdrew the cloud from off the tabernacle, and behold the proud prophetess had the most humiliating of diseases, leprosy white as snow. Miriam was the instigator, therefore on her alone fell the punishment. Aaron was influenced to evil by his sister, as before by the people (Exodus 32), with characteristic pliability. Leprosy was the penalty of sin against the theocracy, as in Uzziah's and Gehazi's case. Miriam became in a state of living death. Aaron interceded with Moses piteously for her: "let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother's womb." So Moses interceded with God: "heal her now, O God, I beseech Thee."

The Lord hearkened, but excluded her from the camp seven days; and such was her popularity, "the people journeyed not (from Hazeroth) until Miriam was brought in again." Her death was at Kadesh Barnea, the first month of the 40th year ( Numbers 20:1). Her sepulchre was shown in Eusebius' (Onom. in Jerome) time at Petra; but Josephus Ant. 4:4, section 6; 3:2, section 4, 6 section 1) places it on Mount Zin, and makes her wife of Hur and grandmother of the architect Bezaleel. Feminine jealousy and ambition were the drawbacks to her otherwise commanding character.

2.  1 Chronicles 4:17. Berheau by transposition reads, "and these are the sons of Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered had taken" immediately after "and Jalon, ... and she (Bithiah) conceived and bore) Miriam," etc. Miriam is here a man.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

sister of Moses and Aaron, and daughter of Amram and Jochebed, was born about A.M. 2424. She might be ten or twelve years old when her brother Moses was exposed on the banks of the Nile, since Miriam was watching there, and offered herself to Pharaoh's daughter to fetch her a nurse. The princess accepting the offer, Miriam fetched her own mother, to whom the young Moses was given to nurse,  Exodus 2:4-5 , &c. It is thought that Miriam married Hur, of the tribe of Judah; but it does not appear that she had any children by him,  Exodus 17:10-11 . Miriam had the gift of prophecy, as she intimates,  Numbers 12:2 : "Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us?" After the passage of the Red Sea, Miriam led the choirs and dances of the women, and sung with them the canticle, "Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea:" while Moses led the choir of men,  Exodus 15:21 . When Zipporah, the wife of Moses, arrived in the camp of Israel, Miriam and Aaron disputed with her, speaking against Moses on her account, Numbers 12. This conduct the Lord punished by visiting Miriam with a leprosy. Aaron interceded with Moses for her recovery, and besought the Lord, who ordered her to be shut out of the camp seven days. We are acquainted with no subsequent particulars of the life of Miriam. Her death happened in the first month of the fortieth year after the exodus, at the encampment of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin,  Numbers 20:1 . The people mourned for her, and she was there buried.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

1. Sister of Aaron and Moses: she is emphatically called 'Miriam the prophetess.' She was probably the sister who watched the ark in which her brother Moses was laid. In after years she headed the procession of women, when, with timbrels and dances, they answered the song of Moses, on their deliverance out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. With Aaron she took the lead in murmuring against Moses, on the plea that he had married an Ethiopian woman. Moses was very meek, but the Lord did not allow His servant, who was faithful in all God's house, and to whom He spake mouth to mouth, to be spoken against. God was angry with them and Miriam was smitten with leprosy, white as snow. Aaron humbled himself and confessed their sin, and Moses prayed for the restoration of Miriam. She was made to go outside the camp seven days. This rebellion was typical of Israel in the character of prophet and priest uniting against Christ as King. Miriam died at Kadesh and was buried there.   Exodus 15:20,21;  Numbers 12:1-15;  Numbers 20:1;  Numbers 26:59;  Deuteronomy 24:9;  Micah 6:4 .

2. Son or daughter of one in the tribe of Judah.  1 Chronicles 4:17 .

Bridgeway Bible Dictionary

Most likely the unnamed sister who looked after the baby Moses was Miriam ( Exodus 2:1-8). She was the eldest of three children who grew up to play a leading part in the establishment of Israel as a new and independent nation ( 1 Chronicles 6:3;  Micah 6:4). She was a prophetess, and led the celebration that followed Israel’s victory over Egypt at the Red Sea ( Exodus 15:19-21).

Later, Miriam and Aaron became jealous of Moses because of the supreme power he exercised in Israel ( Numbers 12:1-2). Miriam was chiefly to blame, and God punished her with a sudden outbreak of leprosy; but when Moses prayed for her, she was healed. However, just as a daughter who had been publicly rebuked by her father had to spend seven days in shame, so did Miriam. Seven days was also the normal period of isolation for the cleansed leper ( Numbers 12:9-15; cf.  Leviticus 14:8).

Miriam died in the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan. She was buried at Kadesh-barnea ( Numbers 20:1).

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

MIRIAM. 1. The sister of Moses and Aaron, probably older than either. It was she who watched Moses in the ark of bulrushes (  Exodus 2:4 ff.). She is called ‘the prophetess,’ and led the women in the song of victory at the Red Sea (  Exodus 15:20 f.). In the course of the wilderness wanderings she combined with Aaron against Moses, and was punished by leprosy, which was healed in answer to the prayer of Moses (  Numbers 12:1-15 ). She died in Kadesh towards the end of the wilderness journey (  Numbers 20:1 ). Her story is referred to in   Deuteronomy 24:8-9 in connexion with the ceremonial law of leprosy, and in   Micah 6:4 she is spoken of along with Moses and Aaron as a leader of the people.

The name Miriam becomes in Greek Mariam and Mariamne, also Maria, our Mary and is probably of Egyptian derivation ( mer Amon , ‘beloved of Amon’).

2. A man (or woman) of the family of Caleb (  1 Chronicles 4:17 ).

W. F. Boyd.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Mir'iam. (Rebellion). The sister of Moses, was the eldest of that sacred family; and she first appears, probably as a young girl, watching her infant brother's cradle in the Nile,  Exodus 2:4, and suggesting her mother as a nurse.  Exodus 2:7.

After the crossing of the Red Sea, "Miriam, the prophetess," is her acknowledged title.  Exodus 15:20. The prophetic power showed itself in her, under the same form as that which it assumed, in the days of Samuel and David, - poetry, accompanied with music and processions.  Exodus 15:1-19.

She took the lead, with Aaron, in the complaint against Moses, for his marriage with a Cushite,  Numbers 12:1-2, and for this, was attacked with leprosy. This stroke and its removal, which took place at Hazeroth, form the last public event of Miriam's life.  Numbers 12:1-15. She died toward the close of the wanderings at Kadesh, and was buried there.  Numbers 20:1. (B.C. about 1452).

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Exodus 2:4-8 Exodus 15:20-21Poetry

At Hazeroth, Miriam sided with Aaron in an act of rebellion against Moses when he married an Ethiopian woman ( Numbers 12:1-15 ). Beneath her disapproval of Moses' choice of a wife lay a deeper problem of ambition and insubordination. Consequently, God reminded her of Moses' divinely appointed leadership and chastened her with leprosy. She was healed following Moses' intercessory prayer and a seven-day quarantine ( Numbers 12:15 ). See Intercession; Leprosy.

Miriam died at Kadesh ( Numbers 20:1 ). Later biblical writers remembered her as an example to Israel in cases of leprosy ( Deuteronomy 24:9 ) and as a leader sent by God ( Micah 6:4 ).

2. Member of the clan of Caleb ( 1 Chronicles 4:17 ).

R. Dean Register

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Miriam ( Mĭr'I-Am ), Rebellion. 1. The daughter of Amram, and the sister of Moses and Aaron,  1 Chronicles 6:3, appointed to watch the ark of bulrushes in which her infant brother was laid among the flags of the river. She was there when Pharaoh's daughter came down and discovered it, and proposed to go for a nurse. She immediately called her mother as the nurse, and the infant was placed under her care.  Exodus 2:4-10. After the passage of the Red Sea, she led the choir of the women of Israel in the sublime song of deliverance,  Exodus 15:20, but afterward, having joined Aaron in murmuring against Moses, she was smitten with leprosy, and restored only in answer to the prayers of Moses.  Numbers 12:1-15. She died and was buried at Kadesh.  Numbers 20:1. 2. A descendant of Judah.  1 Chronicles 4:17.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

The sister of Moses and Aaron, probably the one who watched over Moses in the ark of bulrushes,  Exodus 2:4,5   Numbers 26   59   Micah 6   4 . As a prophetess, she led the women of Israel in their song of worship and thanksgiving to God on the drowning of the Egyptians,  Exodus 15:20,21 . Her jealous murmurs against Moses and his Cushite wife were punished by a temporary leprosy,  Numbers 12:1-16   Deuteronomy 24:9; but she was forgiven and restored, and near the close of the wandering of Israel, died at Kadwshbarnea,  Numbers 20:1 .

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 1 Chronicles 4:17 , one of the descendants of Judah.

Copyright Statement These dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., DD Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain.

Bibliography Information Easton, Matthew George. Entry for 'Miriam'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/m/miriam.html. 1897.

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

The sister of Moses and Aaron, and daughter of Amram. She was older than Moses, for she watched over him when placed in the ark on the river, and it is probable that she was older than Aaron. Her name is derived from Mara, which signifies bitterness. But if, as is more generally supposed, the name is derived from her father's, Amram signifies exalted. (See  Exodus 2:4, etc.)

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Miryam', מַרְיָם , Rebellion; Sept. Μαριάμ , but in  1 Chronicles 4:17 Μαών v. r. Μαρών ; Josephus Μαριάμμη , Ant. 4:4, 6), the name of a woman and of a man. The name reappears in the N.T., Μαριάμ being the form always employed for the nominative case of the name of the Virgin Mary, though it is declined; while Μαρία is employed in all cases for the three other Marys. At the time of the Christian era it seems to have been common. Among others who bore it was Herod's celebrated wife and victim, Mariamne. (See Mary).

1. The sister of Moses and Aaron, and supposed (so Josephus, Ant. 2:9, 4) to be the same that watched her infant brother when exposed on the Nile; in which case she was probably ten or twelve years old at the time ( Exodus 2:4 sq.). B.C. 1738. She was the daughter of Amram and Jochebed, of the tribe of Levi ( Numbers 26:59; comp.  Micah 6:4). When the Israelites left Egypt, Miriam naturally became the leading woman among them. "The sister of Aaron" is her Biblical distinction ( Exodus 10:20). In  Numbers 12:1 she is placed before Aaron; and "Miriam the Prophetess" is her acknowledged title ( Exodus 15:20). The prophetic power showed itself in her under the same form as that which it assumed in the days of Samuel and David poetry, accompanied with music and processions. The only instance of this prophetic gift is when, after the passage of the Red Sea, she took a cymbal in her hand, and went forth, like the Hebrew maidens in later times after a victory ( Judges 18:1;  Judges 11:34;  1 Samuel 18:6;  Psalms 68:11;  Psalms 68:25), followed by the whole female population of Israel, also beating their cymbals and striking their guitars ( מְחֹלֹת , otherwise "dances"). It does not appear how far they joined in the whole of the song ( Exodus 1:15-19); but the opening words are repeated again by Miriam herself at the close, in the form of a command to the Hebrew women. "She answered them, saying, Sing ye to Jehovah, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea." B.C. 1658. The arrival of Moses's Cushite wife in the camp seems to have created in her an unseemly dread of losing her influence and position, and held her into complaints of and dangerous reflections upon Moses, in which Aaron joined (see Kitto's Daily Bible Illustr. ad loc.). (See Zipporah).

Their question, "Hath Jehovah spoken by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us?" ( Numbers 12:1-2), implies that the prophetic gift was exercised by them; while the answer implies that it was communicated in a less direct form than to Moses. "If there be a prophet among you, I Jehovah will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so... With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches" ( Numbers 12:6-8). A stern rebuke was administered in front of the sacred tent to both Aaron and Miriam. But the punishment fell on Miriam, as the chief offender. The hateful Egyptian leprosy, of which for a moment the sign had been seen on the hand of her younger brother, broke out over the whole person of the proud prophetess. How grand was her position, and how heavy the blow, is implied in the cry of anguish which goes up from both the brothers — "Alas my lord!... Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother's womb... Heal her now, O God! I beseech thee." And it is not less evident in the silent grief of the nation: "The people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again" ( Numbers 12:10-15). The same feeling is reflected, though in a strange and distorted form, in the ancient tradition of the drying up and reflowing of the marvellous well of the Wanderings. (See Beer).

This stroke, and its removal, which took place at Hazeroth, form the last public event of Miriam's life. She died towards the close of the wanderings at Kadesh, and was buried there ( Numbers 20:1). B.C. 1619. Her tomb was shown near Petra in the days of Jerome (Onomast. s.v. Cades Barnea). According to the Jewish tradition (Josephus, Ant. 4:4, 6), her death took place on the new moon of the month Xanthicus (i.e., about the end of February), which seems to imply that the anniversary was still observed in the time of Josephus. The burial, he adds, took place with great pomp on a mountain called Zin, i.e. the wilderness of Zin); and the mourning which lasted, as in the case of her brothers, for thirty days was closed by the institution of the purification through the sacrifice of the heifer ( Numbers 19:1-10), which in the Pentateuch immediately precedes the story of her death. According to Josephus (Ant. 3:2, 4; 6, 1), she was married to the famous Hur, and, through him, was grandmother of the architect Bezaleel. In the Koran (chapter 3) she is confounded with the Virgin Mary; and hence the Holy Family is called the Family of Amram, or Imram (see also D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. s.v. Zakaria). In other Arabic traditions her name is given as Kolthum (see Weil's Bibl. Legends, page 101).

2. The first named of the sons of Mered (the son of Ezra, of the family of Caleb) by Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh ( 1 Chronicles 4:17). B.C. prob. cir. 1658. (See Mered).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

mir´i - am ( מרים , miryām  ; Septuagint and the New Testament Μαριάμ , Mariám  ; English Versions of the Bible of the New Testament "Mary"):

(1) Daughter of Amram and Jochebed, and sister of Aaron and Moses. It is probable that it was she who watched the ark of bulrushes in which the child Moses was laid ( Exodus 2:4 ). She associated herself with her brothers in the exodus, is called "the prophetess," and led the choir of maidens who sang the triumph-song after the crossing of the Red Sea ( Exodus 15:20 f). Along with Aaron, she opposed Moses at Hazeroth (  Numbers 12:1-5 ). She was smitten with leprosy in punishment, but on Aaron's intercession was pardoned and healed ( Numbers 12:10-15 ). She died and was buried at Kadesh ( Numbers 20:1 ). In the Deuteronomic Law respecting leprosy, Miriam is mentioned as a warning to the Israelites ( Deuteronomy 24:8 f). In   Micah 6:4 , she is referred to along with Moses and Aaron as a leader of God's people.

(2) Son (or daughter) of Jether ( 1 Chronicles 4:17 ). The latter half of the verse is in its present situation unintelligible; it should probably follow verse 18 (see Curtis, Chronicles , in the place cited.).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Mir´iam (bitterness), sister of Moses and Aaron, and supposed to be the same that watched her infant brother when exposed on the Nile; in which case she was probably ten or twelve years old at the time (, sq.). When the Israelites left Egypt, Miriam naturally became the leading woman among them. She is called 'a prophetess' . After the passage of the Red Sea, she led the music, dance, and song, with which the women celebrated their deliverance . The arrival of Moses' wife in the camp seems to have created in her an unseemly dread of losing her influence and position, and led her into complaints of and dangerous reflections upon Moses, in which Aaron joined. For this she was smitten with leprosy, and, although healed at the intercession of Moses, was excluded for seven days from the camp (Numbers 12; ). Her death took place in the first month of the fortieth year after the Exodus, at the encampment of Kadesh-barnea , where her sepulcher was still to be seen in the time of Eusebius.