Marah, a place where the Israelites found bitter water that Moses made drinkable by casting a tree into it (Exodus 15:23-25; Numbers 33:8-9).
Marah was a location on the route of the Israelites during their Exodus from Egypt. It was the first camp after crossing the Red Sea (Exodus 15:22-23; Numbers 33:8). The name Marah means "bitter" because the water there was undrinkable due to its bitterness. The Israelites grumbled against Moses, but the Lord showed him a tree which, when cast into the water, made it sweet (Exodus 15:24-25). God then tested the Israelites, promising to protect them from diseases if they obeyed His commands (Exodus 15:25-26). After Marah, the Israelites traveled to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees (Exodus 15:27; Numbers 33:9).
Approximate location: 29.350, 32.933 · view on a map · on the Bible atlas
Bitterness, a fountain at the sixth station of the Israelites (Ex. 15:23, 24; Num. 33:8) whose waters were so bitter that they could not drink them. On this account they murmured against Moses, who, under divine direction, cast into the fountain “a certain tree” which took away its bitterness, so that the people drank of it. This was probably the ‘Ain Hawarah, where there are still several springs of water that are very “bitter,” distant some 47 miles from ‘Ayun Mousa.
(bitterness), a place which lay in the wilderness of Shur or Etham, three days journey distant, (Exodus 15:23; Numbers 33:8) from the place at which the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, and where was a spring of bitter water, sweetened subsequently by the casting in of a tree which “the Lord showed” to Moses. Howarah, distant 16 1/2 hours (47 miles) from Ayoun Mousa, the Israelites’ first encampment, has been by many identified with it, apparently because it is the bitterest water in the neighborhood.
MA'RAH (bitterness), a place in the wilderness of Shur or Etham, three days' journey, Num 33:8-9, from the place at which the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. There was at Marah a spring of bitter water, sweetened subsequently by the casting in of a tree which "the Lord showed" to Moses. Ex 15:23-24; Num 33:8-9. At 'Ain Hawarah, distant 47 miles from Aynn Mousa, is a spring whose fountain rises from a large mound in the Wadi el-Amarah, and is considered by the Arabs as the worst water in the district. The soil is impregnated with natron, which accounts for the bitterness. This spring has been identified with Marah. It is of course impossible to determine whether this is the precise spring of which the Israelites drank, but it is certain that it must have been in this neighborhood.
MA'RAH (bitterness), a place in the wilderness of Shur or Etham, three days' journey, Num 33:8-9, from the place at which the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. There was at Marah a spring of bitter water, sweetened subsequently by the casting in of a tree which "the Lord showed" to Moses. Ex 15:23-24; Num 33:8-9. At 'Ain Hawarah, distant 47 miles from Aynn Mousa, is a spring whose fountain rises from a large mound in the Wadi el-Amarah, and is considered by the Arabs as the worst water in the district. The soil is impregnated with natron, which accounts for the bitterness. This spring has been identified with Marah. It is of course impossible to determine whether this is the precise spring of which the Israelites drank, but it is certain that it must have been in this neighborhood.
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
3 verses in 2 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H4785
And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there because it was bitter. (That is why it was named Marah.)
They set out from Pi-hahiroth and crossed through the sea, into the wilderness, and they journeyed three days into the Wilderness of Etham and camped at Marah.
They set out from Marah and came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there.
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.