Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron's sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. Miriam is named here as a prophet — the first woman in Scripture explicitly given that title. Her prophetic role began at the basket on the Nile in Exodus 2:4; her voice will be heard again in Numbers 12 when she challenges Moses' authority. But here she leads the women of Israel in the first recorded dance of worship in the Bible. The timbrels and dancing are the full-bodied response to full-bodied salvation: the God who saved bodies from slavery is praised by bodies in motion. Psalm 150:4 commands praise with tambourine and dancing. The women's worship at the sea is the founding act of the musical tradition that will fill the Psalter. Miriam's timbrel is the ancestor of every instrument raised in praise.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

Publish a note on this verse