Wilderness of Shur

Biblical References

The Korean Revised Version, New Edition (Gaeyeok Gaejeong), renders the name as Sur (수르) in Exodus and as Sul (술) in Genesis and 1 Samuel. Both forms translate the same Hebrew place-name, which English Bibles render as Shur throughout.

• Exodus 15:22: After Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, the people went out into the Wilderness of Shur and traveled three days without finding water. The account continues with the bitter water at Marah (15:23–26) and the twelve wells of Elim (15:27). Numbers 33:8 records the same journey: they "went three days' journey in the wilderness of Etham, and pitched in Marah."
• Genesis 16:7: The angel of the LORD found Hagar, who had fled from Sarah (then called Sarai), "by the fountain in the way to Shur" (see Hagar and Ishmael).
• Genesis 20:1: Abraham "dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar."
• Genesis 25:18: The descendants of Ishmael dwelt "from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt."
• 1 Samuel 15:7; 27:8: Saul struck the Amalekites from Havilah to Shur. The text also identifies the peoples whom David raided while living among the Philistines as inhabitants of the land "as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt."

Background

The Wilderness of Shur is generally understood to be an arid region lying beyond the eastern frontier of Egypt and extending from what is now the northwestern Sinai Peninsula toward the Negev. Scholars disagree about its exact extent and boundaries. The Hebrew word shur is commonly understood to mean "wall" or "rampart." Some connect the name with the fortifications Egypt built along its eastern border, but this explanation remains uncertain. Scripture portrays the region as a corridor between Egypt and Canaan and as a frontier land frequented by nomads and by tribes such as the Amalekites.

Broader Biblical Significance

The Wilderness of Shur was the first wilderness Israel encountered after the Exodus. Immediately after the elation of crossing the Red Sea, the people were tested by a lack of water; they murmured, and God provided water. This pattern recurs throughout the later narrative of the forty years in the wilderness. In this passage God reveals Himself with the words "I am the LORD that healeth thee" (Exodus 15:26). In the Hagar narrative as well, the region appears as a place where an outcast meets God in the wilderness.

The name Shur does not appear in the New Testament. However, Paul presents Israel's wilderness experience as an example for believers (1 Corinthians 10:11–12), and the Epistle to the Hebrews cites the hardening of hearts in the wilderness as a warning (Hebrews 3).

Interpretation and Points of Discussion

• One place or two? The "Wilderness of Shur" in Exodus and the "Wilderness of Etham" in Numbers are commonly regarded either as two names for the same region or as names for overlapping areas.
• The tree at Marah: Some interpretive traditions dating back to the early church have read the tree that Moses cast into the water to make it sweet (Exodus 15:25) as a type of the cross. Interpreters who emphasize the flow of the narrative, by contrast, confine its meaning to a lesson about God's provision and the call to obedience.
• Identifying the sites: Scripture does not give the exact locations of Marah and Elim. Identifications with particular oases are later conjectures.

In the Korean Church

Korean preachers frequently draw on the Wilderness of Shur and the Marah narrative to speak of the "trials of the wilderness" in the Christian life and of "the grace that turns bitter water sweet." The phrase "the LORD that healeth thee" in Exodus 15:26 is especially popular in Pentecostal and Full Gospel churches that emphasize divine healing.