Song of Miriam

Text and Content

The first part of Exodus 15 (verses 1-18) contains a long song sung by Moses and the children of Israel. The Song of Miriam follows in verses 20-21. The text introduces "Miriam the prophetess" as "the sister of Aaron." When Miriam took a timbrel in her hand, all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. Miriam answered them, singing, "Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea." The song celebrates the drowning of the Egyptian army during the crossing of the Red Sea as God's victory. Its wording is nearly identical to the opening line of the Song of Moses (Exodus 15:1).

Background

The timbrel is understood to have been a small hand drum. Scenes in which women come out with timbrels and dancing to greet those returning victorious from battle appear elsewhere in Scripture, as when the daughter of Jephthah came out to meet her father (Judges 11:34) and when the women came out to meet Saul and David (1 Samuel 18:6-7). Miriam is the first woman in the Bible to be called a prophetess. Micah 6:4 records that God sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam before Israel.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

The Song of Miriam is read as the archetype of a redeemed community remembering its deliverance and responding to God with praise. The calls to praise God with timbrel and dance in Psalm 149:3 and Psalm 150:4 ("Praise him with the timbrel and dance") stand in the same tradition of praise. In the New Testament, Revelation 15:3 depicts the redeemed by the sea singing "the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb," thereby linking the song of the Red Sea with the final song of salvation. The name Mary is understood to derive from the same name as Miriam. For this reason, some interpreters view the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), together with the Song of Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1-10), as women's songs of praise that carry on the tradition of the Song of Miriam.

Interpretation and Points of Debate

• Relationship between the two songs: Some interpreters regard the Song of Miriam as a refrain to the Song of Moses, that is, an antiphonal response. Some scholars hold that the short Song of Miriam is the older form and that the Song of Moses is an expansion of it. Traditional interpretation, by contrast, reads the two songs as having been sung together on the same occasion.
• The role of women: Supporters of the ordination of women cite the prophetess Miriam's leadership of the community's praise as a biblical example of female leadership. Opponents distinguish between the ministry of Old Testament prophets and the offices of pastor and elder in the New Testament church.
• Traditions outside the text: In Exodus 2, the sister who watched over the infant Moses is not named. On the basis of Numbers 26:59, she is commonly identified as Miriam. The record that the congregation had no water after Miriam's death (Numbers 20:1-2) gave rise in Jewish rabbinic tradition to the legend of "Miriam's Well," but this story does not appear in the biblical text.

In Korean Churches

In the preaching of Korean churches, this passage is frequently treated as a model of the thanksgiving and praise that burst forth from those who have experienced salvation. Together with the account of David dancing in 2 Samuel 6:14, it is also cited as a biblical basis for choreographed movement or worship dance in services. Churches differ, however, on the extent to which dance and percussion instruments should be used in worship.