What Does Exodus 15:20 Mean?

Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. Miriam is introduced by title, "the prophetess", at the moment of her most visible public ministry: leading Israel's women in tambourine-and-dance worship at the sea.

The title "prophetess" (Hebrew: hanevi'ah) places Miriam in the category of inspired, authoritative divine spokespersons: she is rather than Aaron's sister or Moses' sister but a prophetess in her own right. Numbers 12:2 records Miriam and Aaron claiming equal prophetic authority with Moses: "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?"

The tambourine (Hebrew: tof, hand-drum) is the instrument of women's victory celebrations in the ancient Near East: judges 11:34 (Jephthah's daughter), 1 Samuel 18:6-7 (the women who celebrated Saul and David's victory), Psalm 68:25: all feature women with tambourines in processional victory celebrations. Miriam's tambourine-leadership is the first instance of this recurring celebration pattern: the woman prophet leads the women's processional victory dance at the moment of divine military victory. The Song of the Sea's liturgy is complete only when both the men's voice (Moses, verse 1) and the women's dance (Miriam, verse 20) have responded.

The corporate "all the women went out after her" positions Miriam as the feminine leader of Israel's community: as Moses leads the men's singing, Miriam leads the women's dancing. The community's response to the sea crossing is gendered and communal simultaneously: both men and women, voices and bodies, song and dance. The fullness of Israel's worship at the sea involves the whole community expressing its response in both sung theology (the Song of the Sea's doctrinal content) and embodied celebration (the women's dance).