You are strongly recommended to add to your library the excellent revised edition of Harper's Bible Dictionary titled, The Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, Revised Edition [book review], edited by Paul J. Achtemeier, with the Society of Biblical Literature (NY: Harper Collins, 1996). It is currently the best one-volume Bible dictionary in English, and it is available at Border's Books, Christian Science Reading Rooms, http://www.borders.com, or http://www.christianbook.com.

Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron. We first hear of her when the infant Moses was placed in a basket on the Nile and his sister (not named here) watched from a distance; when the baby was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter, the sister offered to find a Hebrew wetnurse and fetched Moses’mother (Exod. 2:4-8). After the Exodus, Miriam had a prominent position among the women, for Exod. 15:20-21 records her leading the women in the victory song after the events at the Red Sea. Miriam is called a prophetess in this passage. She later considered her prophecy equal to that of Moses when she and Aaron complained about the marriage of Moses to the Cushite woman (Num. 12); for that, she was struck with leprosy and was healed a week later after Aaron asked Moses to intercede for her. Miriam died and was buried at Kadesh. In later biblical tradition the leprosy of Miriam was presented as a caution to Israel (Deut. 24:9), and Miriam was remembered together with Moses and Aaron as leaders sent by God (Mic. 6:4). In postbiblical Jewish legends the prophecy of Miriam is stressed, and she was considered to have foretold the birth of Moses as savior of his people.