Don't let jealousy ever touch a sister's soul, as it so often does,
because her brother gets more honor or more means. Even Miriam, the
heroine of the text, was struck by that evil passion of jealousy. She
had possessed unlimited influence over Moses, and now he marries, and
not only so but marries a black woman from Ethiopia, and Miriam is so
disgusted and outraged at Moses, first because he had married at all,
and next, because he had practised miscegenation, that she is drawn
into a frenzy, and then begins to turn white, and gets white as a
corpse, and then whiter than a corpse. Her complexion is like chalk;
the fact is, she has the Egyptian leprosy. And now the brother whom
she had defended on the Nile comes to her rescue in a prayer that
brings her restoration.
Let there be no room in all your house for jealousy, either to sit or
stand. It is a leprous abomination. Your brother's success, O sisters!
is your success. His victories will be your victories; for, while
Moses the brother led the vocal music after the crossing of the Red
Sea, Miriam, the sister, with two glittering sheets of brass uplifted
and glittering in the sun, led the instrumental music, clapping the
cymbals till the last frightened neigh of pursuing cavalry horse was
smothered in the wave, and the last Egyptian helmet went under.