Miriam

Miriam was the elder sister of Moses and Aaron, one of the few women in the Hebrew Bible explicitly designated a prophetess (Exodus 15:20). As a child she watched over the infant Moses floating in the Nile and arranged for his mother to serve as his wet-nurse (Exodus 2:4–8). After the crossing of the Sea of Reeds she led the women of Israel in song and dance celebrating the victory over Pharaoh's army, a passage (Exodus 15:20–21) that may preserve one of the oldest poetic fragments in the Bible. She was stricken with a skin disease for challenging Moses's authority (Numbers 12) but was healed after Moses prayed for her. She died at Kadesh and was buried there (Numbers 20:1).