Marah

Biblical Text

Marah appears in Exodus 15:22-26. After the people had crossed the Red Sea, Moses led them into the wilderness of Shur, where they went three days without finding water before arriving at Marah. The water there was bitter and could not be drunk, so the place was named Marah (Exodus 15:23). When the people murmured against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" Moses cried unto the LORD. The LORD showed him a tree, and when Moses cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There God made for the people a statute and an ordinance and proved them, declaring, "I am the LORD that healeth thee" (Exodus 15:26). Afterward the people moved on to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees. Marah appears again in the itinerary of Numbers 33:8-9 as the place where the Israelites encamped after departing from before Pi-hahiroth, passing through the sea, and traveling three days' journey. In this list the wilderness is called the "wilderness of Etham."

Background and Meaning of the Name

"Marah" is Hebrew for "bitter" or "bitterness." When Naomi says in Ruth 1:20, "Call me Mara," her words carry the same meaning. In Ruth, however, Mara is a personal epithet and is unrelated to the place-name Marah. The exact location of Marah is unknown. Some identify it with a spring along the western coastal route of the Sinai Peninsula (such as Ain Hawarah), but this identification has not been confirmed.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

The Marah episode is the first test and the first murmuring in the wilderness after the Exodus. Together with the manna and quail episode that follows shortly afterward, it begins the pattern of "need, murmuring, and divine provision" that recurs throughout the forty years in the wilderness. The New Testament does not mention Marah directly. Nevertheless, the approach reflected in passages such as 1 Corinthians 10:11-12, which treats the experiences of the wilderness generation as examples for the church, has served as a framework for reading this event. The title "the LORD that healeth thee" in Exodus 15:26 is known by its Hebrew pronunciation as "Jehovah Rapha" and is frequently included in discussions of the names of God.

Interpretation and Points of Debate

• The meaning of the tree: The text explains neither what kind of tree it was nor how the water was made sweet. Since the early church, interpreters have read the tree as a type, that is, a foreshadowing, of the cross. Some interpreters in the Reformed tradition caution against overly allegorical (figurative) readings that the text does not support. There are also naturalistic explanations proposing that some property of the tree changed the water, but such explanations are not found in the text.
• The scope of healing: The Pentecostal tradition and the Holiness tradition, which confesses divine healing as one of the four elements of the Fourfold Gospel, often cite Exodus 15:26 as a promise of physical divine healing. Interpreters from other denominations emphasize that the verse stands within a covenantal context conditioned on obedience, or read healing in a broader sense that includes spiritual restoration.

In the Korean Church

In Korean church preaching, the expression "the bitter water of Marah turns into sweet water" is widely used to describe life's hardships and the restoration that follows. Many sermons also pair Marah with Elim, the next stop on the journey, to illustrate "rest after suffering."