MIRIAM'S AND AARON'S SEDITION. (Num 12:1-9) an Ethiopian woman--Hebrew, "a Cushite woman"--Arabia was usually called in Scripture the land of Cush, its inhabitants being descendants of that son of Ham (see on Exo 2:15) and being accounted generally a vile and contemptible race (see on Amo 9:7). The occasion of this seditious outbreak on the part of Miriam and Aaron against Moses was the great change made in the government by the adoption of the seventy rulers [Num 11:16]. Their irritating disparagement of his wife (who, in all probability, was Zipporah [Exo 2:21], and not a second wife he had recently married) arose from jealousy of the relatives, through whose influence the innovation had been first made (Exo 18:13-26), while they were overlooked or neglected. Miriam is mentioned before Aaron as being the chief instigator and leader of the sedition.