<P> Afterward, Miriam is left with bodily tzara'at, which according to Jewish sources is a divine punishment for slander . This was because she, not Aaron, was the one who initiated the complaint against Moses . Despite her good intentions for Tzipora, she should have judged Moses favorably and approached him on her behalf privately . Aaron asks Moses to intercede for her, Moses prays to God to heal her, and God concedes after requiring a quarantine of seven days . It has been suggested that since according to the Hebrew Bible anyone with tzara'at was tamei (Leviticus 13 - 14), Aaron was spared this punishment in order not to interrupt his duties as High Priest . However, noting the wording of the verse, "God's wrath flared against them (i.e. both Aaron and Miriam)", the Talmud appears to conclude that Aaron was also smitten with tzara'at initially, but was then immediately cured . </P> <P> It has been suggested that Josephus and Irenaeus (who merely cites Josephus) identify the Cushite woman as Tharbis, "the daughter of the king of the Ethiopians". However, while Josephus does describe a legend (which is not written in the Torah) wherein Moses marries this princess during a military campaign he leads in Ethiopia, according to Josephus this marriage occurs while Moses is still a royal prince of Egypt long before he re-discovers his oppressed Jewish brethren . After which time, upon fleeing as a solitary fugitive from Egypt, the only marriage of Moses that the Torah records is with Tzipora the daughter of Yitro the Midianite . In fact, Josephus himself later records Moses' marriage to Tzipora as distinctly separate and subsequent to his earlier marriage to Tharbis . Furthermore, according to the conclusion of the Tharbis legend, Moses fashioned a miraculous ring which caused her to forget her love for him, and he then returned to Egypt alone . Therefore, even according to Josephus, Moses' first marriage to Tharbis as military leader of Egypt terminated long before his later marriage to Tzipora as fugitive from Egypt, such that the Cushite wife of Moses mentioned in the Torah after the Exodus appears to be Tzipora, as explained above . </P> <P> Richard E. Friedman writes that since Cush is generally understood to mean "Ethiopia", it is possible that the "Cushite woman" is not Tzipora . But he adds that since there is a place called Cushan which is a region of Midian, and Moses' wife Tzipora has already been identified as a Midianite, it is possible that the term "Cushite" relates to Tzipora's being from Cushan . However, Friedman's primary interest is not in the identity of the Cushite woman, but rather in the outcome of this story which establishes Moses' superiority over Aaron as an example of his claim that rival priesthoods created or publicized tales in order to legitimize their respective claims to privilege and power . He describes the Aaronid priesthood in the Kingdom of Judah, which claimed descent from Aaron and which controlled the Temple in Jerusalem, as opposed to a priesthood which claimed allegiance to Moses and was based at Shiloh in the Kingdom of Israel . Using interpretations from the documentary hypothesis, he notes that this story, which he calls "Snow - White Miriam", was authored by the Elohist who he claims was from, or supported, the Shiloh priesthood, and thus promoted this tale to assert Moses' superiority over Aaron and thereby belittle the Aaronid priesthood in Judah . However, the identity of the Cushite woman referred to in this story is tangential to Friedman and his opinion remains inconclusive . </P> <P> Interestingly, Midrashic sources also describe the military campaign of Moses mentioned in Josephus, but in more detail and with significant differences . In the Midrash, Moses arrives in Ethiopia after fleeing Egypt at the age of 18 . There, he wages war on behalf of the wrongly deposed king Kokinus for 9 years until the age of 27 when, through ingenious means, he finally reconquers the capital, but only after the king's death . The grateful populace bestow wealth and favor upon Moses, elect him as their new king and confer upon him the widowed queen as wife . However, because the queen maintains her idolatrous ways, Moses never consummates the marriage with her . After he reigns for 40 years until the age of 67, the disgruntled, idolatrous queen beseeches the populace to dethrone Moses in favor of Munchan, her then grown son from Kokinus . Moses steps down, the people send him off with great honor and gratitude, and from there he travels to Midian where he resides with Yitro for 10 years before marrying Yitro's daughter Tzipora at the age of 77 . God then appears to him in the Burning Bush and commands him to return to Egypt in order to redeem the Jewish People, which he does at the age of 80, together with Aaron who was 83 . </P>

Who is miriam in the book of numbers