מִרְיָם
Miriam
BDB lists 3 entries for ‘Miriam’ fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Proper
- A name of a specific person, place, or people (e.g. Abraham, Zion, Israel).
Every verse where H4813 appears in the Book of Numbers — 7 distinct verses. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Numbers
- Numbers 12:1 מִרְיָ֤ם n Proper Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.
- Numbers 12:4 מִרְיָ֔ם n Proper Yahweh spoke suddenly to Moses, and to Aaron, and to Miriam, Come out you three to the tent of meeting. They three came out.
- Numbers 12:5 וּ/מִרְיָ֔ם conj + n Proper Yahweh came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forth.
- Numbers 12:10 מִרְיָ֖ם מִרְיָ֖ם n Proper n Proper The cloud removed from over the Tent; and, behold, Miriam was leprous, as [white as] snow: and Aaron looked at Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous.
- Numbers 12:15 מִרְיָ֛ם מִרְיָֽם n Proper n Proper Miriam was shut up outside of the camp seven days: and the people didn't travel until Miriam was brought in again.
- Numbers 20:1 מִרְיָ֔ם n Proper The children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
- Numbers 26:59 מִרְיָ֥ם n Proper The name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt: and she bore to Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
“Miriam” is the headline sense of the Hebrew name מרים (Miryâm). More than half of its appearances fall in Numbers. It appears 13 verses across 5 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its uncommon vocabulary. Scripture first uses it in Exodus 15:20. The sections below give every occurrence and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H4813 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 13
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 13 distinct verses.
- 5 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 5 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,836
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,836 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 13 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Numbers 7 verses 54%
- Exodus 2 verses 15%
- 1 Chronicles 2 verses 15%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 13 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 10 verses · 77%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 2 verses · 15%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 1 verse · 8%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Miriam 13×
- American Standard Version: Miriam 13×
- Berean Standard Bible: Miriam 13×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Miriam 15×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4813 across 15 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4813 across 15 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H4813 across 14 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4813 across 15 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 2 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- 1. f. sister of Aaron Ex 15:20 (E), and of Moses and Aaron Nu 26:59 (P), 1 Ch 5:29; named also Ex 15:21 (E), Nu 12:1, 4, 5, 10(×2), 15(×2); 20:1 (all JE), Dt 24:9 Mi 6:4. 𝔊 Μαριαμ. e.g. Exodus 15:20
- 2. m. (prob.) a Judahite 1 Ch 4:17. 𝔊 τὸν Μαιων, 𝔊L Μωεωρ. e.g. 1 Chronicles 4:17
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
Derived from מרי (mᵉrîy) (H4805) — rebellion.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
חַיָּה II
- (חָיָה)
- 1. [recovering,] lying-in woman, woman in confinement. Yoma VIII, 1 הח׳ תנעול וכ׳ a woman after confinement may wear shoes (on the Day of Atonement). Ber. 54ᵇ חולה ח׳ וכ׳ a sick person, a lying-in &c.; a. fr.—Pl. חַיּוֹת. Y. Kil. IX, 32ᵇ bot.; Gen. R. s. 96, end אי לכם ח׳ וכ׳ woe to you, lying-in women in Palestine; a. fr.
- 2. [physician,] midwife. Tosef. B. Bath. VII, 2 נאמנת ח׳ וכ׳ the midwife is an admissible witness as to which (of twins) was the first-born; Y. Kidd. IV, 69ᵈ bot.; Y. B. Bath. III, beg. 13ᵈ הח׳ בשעה וכ׳ the midwife (is an admissible witness) only as long as she is seated by the obstetric chair (not after she left the mother). Y. Yeb. XVI, end, 16ᵃ עשו אותו כח׳ וכ׳ they place him in the same category as a midwife whose testimony is valid on the spot; a. e.—Pl. as ab. Cant. R. to IV, 5 מרים … חַיּוֹתֵיהֶן וכ׳ Miriam … were the midwives of Israel; a. fr.
מִרְיָם
- (b. h.) pr. n. f. Miriam,
- 1. sister of Moses. Sot. I, 9 (9ᵇ).). Ex. R. s. 1; a. v. fr.
- 2. name of several persons. Lam. R. to I, 16, v. בַּיְתוֹס.—Ib.; Pesik. R. s. 29-30-30 (ed. Fr. p. 140ᵃ) M., daughter of Naḳdimon.—Lam. R. l. c. M., daughter of Naḥtom; Yalk. Deut. 938 (of Tanḥum).—M. the hair-dresser; M. the children’s nurse, v. גְּדַל I, II.—M. a member of the priestly family of Bilgah. Tosef. Succ. IV, 28; Succ. 56ᵇ; Y. ib. V, end, 55ᵈ; a. others.
- 3. Imma Miriam. Keth. 87ᵃ; 88ᵇ.—[Ruth R. to II, 5, v. מֵרוֹם.]
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 13 distinct written forms H4813 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| מִרְיָ֔ם | Noun, Proper | Numbers 12:4 | 2 |
| מִרְיָ֖ם | Noun, Proper | Numbers 12:10 | 2 |
| וּ/מִרְיָ֑ם | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 6:3 | 1 |
| וּ/מִרְיָ֔ם | Noun, Proper | Numbers 12:5 | 1 |
| וּ/מִרְיָֽם | Noun, Proper | Micah 6:4 | 1 |
| לְ/מִרְיָ֑ם | Noun, Proper | Deuteronomy 24:9 | 1 |
| מִרְיָ֑ם | Noun, Proper | Exodus 15:21 | 1 |
| מִרְיָ֛ם | Noun, Proper | Numbers 12:15 | 1 |
| מִרְיָ֣ם | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 4:17 | 1 |
| מִרְיָ֤ם | Noun, Proper | Numbers 12:1 | 1 |
| מִרְיָ֥ם | Noun, Proper | Numbers 26:59 | 1 |
| מִרְיָ֨ם | Noun, Proper | Exodus 15:20 | 1 |
| מִרְיָֽם | Noun, Proper | Numbers 12:15 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4813, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → 2 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Miriam). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897
Their rebellion. (1.) The sister of Moses and Aaron (Ex. 2:4-10; 1 Chr. 6:3). Her name is prominent in the history of the Exodus. She is called "the prophetess" (Ex. 15:20). She took the lead in the song of triumph after the passage of the Red Sea. She died at Kadesh during the second encampment at that place, toward the close of the wanderings in the wilderness, and was buried there (Num. 20:1). (See AARON; MOSES.)
(2.) 1 Chr. 4:17, one of the descendants of Judah.
Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863
(rebellion), the sister of Moses, was the eldest of that sacred family; and she first appears, probably as a young girl, watching her infant brother's cradle in the Nile, (Exodus 2:4) and suggesting her mother as a nurse. ver. 7. After the crossing of the Red Sea "Miriam the prophetess" is her acknowledged title. ch. (Exodus 15:20) The prophetic power showed itself in her under the same form as that which it assumed in the days of Samuel and David,--poetry, accompanied with music and processions. ch. (Exodus 15:1-19) She took the lead, with Aaron, in the complaint against Moses for his marriage with a Cushite, (Numbers 12:1,2) and for this was attacked with leprosy. This stroke and its removal, which took place at Hazeroth, form the last public event of Miriam's life. ch. (Numbers 12:1-15) She died toward the close of the wanderings at Kadesh, and was buried there. ch. (Numbers 20:1) (B.C. about 1452.)
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
rebellion
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 13 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 13 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
