And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.
Read Chapter 15
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
And Miriam taking the timbrel led the dances with maidenly modesty. But consider whom she was then prefiguring. Was she not a type of the church, who as a virgin with unstained spirit joins together the religious gatherings of the people to sing divine songs? Concerning Virgins.
This is what Moses sang and the sons of Israel with him, what Miriam the prophetess sang and the daughters of Israel with her. It is what we too now should sing, whether it means men and women or means our spirit and our flesh. “Those who belong to Christ Jesus,” you see, as the apostle says, “have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires.” This can be suitably understood in the drum which Miriam took to accompany this song: flesh, you see, is stretched over wood to make a drum. So they learn from the cross how to accompany in confession the sweet strains of grace.
“The prophetess Miriam took….” How did she become a prophetess? Either, like Isaiah’s wife, she had the honorary title of prophecy, although she was not a prophetess, or because she was just a woman. .
Mary, or Mariam, as it was formerly pronounced, though the Masorets now read Miriam: may signify one "exalted, lady, star, bitterness of the sea. "
Prophetess; having revelations from God, (Numbers xii. 1,) and singing his praises.
Of Aaron. Moses passes over himself out of modesty. She is known by this title, whence it is supposed she never married. (St. Ambrose) (Calmet)
Timbrels, which were already used in solemn worship.
And dances. Choris may mean companies of women, singing and dancing in honour of God. The men repeated what Moses had entoned, and the women did the same after Mary; unless, perhaps, the multitude of both sexes, respectively, repeated only the first verse by way of chorus; or Mary and her band took up each verse "in answer "to the men, as the Hebrew insinuates. This divine canticle will afford joy even to the elect, Apocalypse xv. 3.
This reminds us that the prophetess, Miriam, immediately after the crossing of the sea, took a dry, tuneful “tambourine in her hand” and led a chorus of women. Perhaps by the tambourine Scripture means to suggest the virginity of the first Mary, who was, I think, the prototype of Mary the mother of God. For as the tambourine produces a loud sound, having no moisture in it and being quite dry, so also virginity is clear and noised abroad and has nothing in itself of the lifepreserving moisture of this life.
This name is related to prophecy and salutary to those reborn. It is the badge of virginity, the glory of purity, the indication of chastity, the sacrificial gift of God, the height of hospitality, the sum total of sanctity. Rightly therefore is this motherly name that of the mother of Christ.
