Miriam, The Prophetess
Sister of Moses and Aaron

We see her as a young girl beside the Nile, watching at a distance the water-tight basket among the reeds of the river, in which her little baby brother has been placed.

When Pharoah’s daughter discovers the infant in his queer cradle, Miriam hurries to the scene and suggests the a nurse be secured. This meets the approval of the princess and the girl hurries away to get her mother, who becomes the royally appointed nurse of her own babe, and so his life is saved.

When that brother was weaned, he was taken to the royal palace and his education in all of the arts and sciences of Egypt began, and was continued for forty years. The sister who watched him in his boat cradle, watched his career amid royalty.

The came a change. He fled into exile, where he remained for forty years until God called and sent him back to lead Israel out of bondage.

Regretting this great loss to his kingdom, and recovering his awful fright at those divine “wonders” done in the field of Zoar, Pharaoh gathered his legions and, pursuing, was overwhelmed as he followed them through the divinely parted Red Sea.

When the fugitive Israelites have crossed the Red Sea, we see Miriam leading the women in the antiphonal jubilee chorus.

Her prophetic power showed itself somewhat as in the later times of Samuel and David – which was exhibited in poetry accompanied with music and procession.

When Moses married a Cushite wife, Miriam took the lead with Aaron in the complaint department against him. She felt that, as an older sister, she could not relinquish her right to some part in the control of her brother’s affairs. As a punishment she was smitten with leprosy. This was afterward removed. The affliction and cure form the last public event in Miriam’s life. She died at Kadesh and was buried there.

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Reference: Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.