Miriam Facts for 9-13 Year Olds

Categories: Moses, Women in the Bible

• Miriam is the elder sister of Aaron and Moses.
• She is the only daughter of her family.
• When her mother puts Moses in a basket and places it among the reeds of the Nile, Miiram watches from a distance.
• When Pharaoh’s daughter finds him, Miriam pops out of the reeds and offers to find a Hebrew mother to nurse the baby for her.
• Miriam takes the baby back to her mother.
• The next glimpse of Miriam comes at the Red Sea.
• She takes a “tambourine in her hand and all the women go out after her with tambourines.”
• She dances and leads a victory song known as the “Song of the Sea.”
• She sings, “Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea” – a reference to Pharaoh’s army.
• Scholars believe this is one of the oldest biblical texts.
• Miriam is also called a Prophetess - someone through whom God speaks.
• In Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron ask, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Hasn't he also spoken through us?”
• Yet they cannot object to Moses’ authority outright. So they challenge him on his marriage to a Cushite woman, his second wife.
• Cush is near modern-day Ethiopia, and if that’s the case, then his wife would most likely have had dark skin.
• There is no consensus on whether this would have increased or decreased his status. Most think dark skin was highly valued at that time, and this disagreement might have been nothing more than petty jealousy between a wife and a sister.
• God calls all three of them into the tent of meeting. He does not deny Aaron and Miriam’s ability to prophesy.
• However, God also affirms his loyalty to Moses.
• Suddenly, Miriam comes down with a case of leprosy.
• Miriam, who has found fault with Moses’ dark-skinned wife, now has diseased skin that is leprous and white as snow.
• Moses immediately pleads to God on her behalf; she is healed.
• Even though Miriam is healed immediately, she has to wait seven days before she can rejoin society.
• Josephus (historian) states that Miriam marries Hur, Moses’ close companion.
• In other documents she is purported to be Hur’s mother and the wife of Caleb.
• At the beginning of Numbers 20, there is a brief notation that Miriam dies at the first new moon.
• There is no specified time of mourning for Miriam.