And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
An Ethiopian woman, х haa'ishaah (H802) ha-Kushiyt (H3569)] - the Cushite woman. Arabia was usually called in Scripture the land of Cush-its inhabitants being descendants of that son of Ham (see the note at Exodus 2:15), and being accounted generally a vile and contemptible race (Amos 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 70 rulers; and their irritating disparagement of his wife-who, in all probability was Zipporah, and not a second wife he had recently married-arose from jealousy of her relatives, through whose influence the innovation had been first made (Exodus 18:1-27), while they were overlooked or neglected. Many commentators, however, suppose this wife to be a different person from Zipporah. Miriam is mentioned before Aaron, as being the chief instigator and leader of the sedition.