Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 15:23
And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they [were] bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
23. Marah ] Burckhardt, Travels [1810 11] in Syria, &c., 1822, p. 472, suggested that this might be the well of Howarah (or [Palmer] Hawwrah), about 47 miles SE. of ‘Ayn Ms, and 7 miles from the coast, on the usual route to Mt. Sinai, with water so bitter as to be undrinkable, though at times (Palmer, Des. Exodus 40) it is palatable. It is ‘a solitary spring of bitter water with a stunted palm-tree growing near it, and affording a delicious shade.’ The identification has been accepted by many since Burckhardt: but it is far from certain (it need hardly be said that there is no etym. connexion between Hawwrah [said by Palmer to mean a small pool of undrinkable water ] and Marah), In itself the site would be suitable, supposing that the Israelites crossed the sea at or near Suez: but it agrees badly with Num 33:8 (P), if Marah is here correctly placed in the ‘wilderness of Etham ’ (see on Exo 13:20), and it would be much too far, if the Israelites made their crossing at or near the Bitter Lakes: by those who adopt the latter view, ‘Ain Nba (also called el-Ghrkdeh), a fountain with a considerable supply of brackish water (Rob. i. 61 f.), about 10 miles SE. of Suez, and 50 miles from Lake Tims, has been suggested for Marah, and ‘Ayn Ms (though this is only 6 miles SW. of ‘Ain Nba) for Elim ( v. 27). Under the circumstances, as Di. says, it is impossible to speak with an certainty respecting the site of Marah.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Marah – Now identified with the fount of Huwara. The fountain rises from a large mound, a whitish petrifaction, deposited by the water, and is considered by the Arabians to be the worst in the whole district.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 23. Marah] So called from the bitter waters found there. Dr. Shaw conjectures that this place is the same as that now called Corondel, where there is still a small rill which, if not diluted with dews or rain, continues brackish. See his account at the end of Exodus. See Clarke on Ex 40:38.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
23. when they came to Marah, theycould not drink of the watersFollowing the general route ofall travellers southward, between the sea and the tableland of theTih (“valley of wandering”), Marah is almost universallybelieved to be what is now called Howarah, in Wady Amarah, aboutthirty miles from the place where the Israelites landed on theeastern shore of the Red Seaa distance quite sufficient for theirmarch of three days. There is no other perennial spring in theintermediate space. The water still retains its ancient character,and has a bad name among the Arabs, who seldom allow their camels topartake of it.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And when they came to Marah,…. A place in the wilderness, afterwards so called from the quality of the waters found here; wherefore this name is by anticipation:
they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; and they must be very bitter for people in such circumstances, having been without water for three days, not to be able to drink of them: some have thought these to be the bitter fountains Pliny f speaks of, somewhere between the Nile and the Red sea, but these were in the desert of Arabia; more probably they were near, and of the same kind with those that Diodorus Siculus g makes mention of, who, speaking of the Troglodytes that inhabited near the Red sea, and in the wilderness, observes, that from the city Arsinoe, as you go along the shores of the continent on the right hand, there are several rivers that gush out of the rocks into the sea, of a bitter taste: and so Strabo h speaks of a foss or ditch, which runs out into the Red sea and Arabian gulf, and by the city Arsinoe, and flows through those lakes which are called bitter; and that those which were of old time bitter, being made a foss and mixed with the river, are changed, and now produce good fish, and abound with water fowl: but what some late travellers have discovered seems to be nearer the truth: Doctor Shaw i thinks these waters may be properly fixed at Corondel, where there is a small rill, which, unless it be diluted by the dews and rain, still continues to be brackish: another traveller k tells us that, at the foot of the mountain of Hamam-El-Faron, a small but most delightful valley, a place called Garondu, in the bottom of the vale, is a rivulet that comes from the afore mentioned mountain, the water of which is tolerably good, and in sufficient plenty, but is however not free from being somewhat bitter, though it is very clear: Doctor Pocock says there is a mountain known to this day by the name of Le-Marah; and toward the sea is a salt well called Bithammer, which is probably the same here called Marah: this Le-Marah, he says, is sixteen hours south of the springs of Moses; that is, forty miles from the landing place of the children of Israel; from whence to the end of the wilderness were six hours’ travelling, or about fifteen miles; which were their three days’ travel in the wilderness, and from thence two hours’ travel, which were five miles, to a winter torrent called Ouarden; where, it may be supposed, Moses encamped and refreshed his people, and from thence went on to Marsh, about the distance of eight hours, or twenty miles southward from the torrent of Ouarden:
therefore the name of it is called Marah; from the bitterness of the waters, which the word Marah signifies; see Ru 1:20.
f Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 29. g Bibliothec. l. 3. p. 172. h Geograph. l. 17. p. 553. i Travels, p. 314. k A Journal from Grand Cairo to Mount Sinai, A. D. 1722, p. 14, 15.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
CRITICAL NOTES.
Exo. 15:27. Elim.]Probably = palms, Ges. F. Dav. By many identified with Wadi Gharendel, situated 2 miles S. of Howarah, and 2 miles N. of Tor, in a very beautiful valley of almost one English mile in length, and abounding in good water. Even according to the most recent travellers, excellent fountains, and a great number of trees, especially tamerisks and palm-trees, are still found in that valley, so that it is generally chosen as one of chief stations on the journey to Sinai.Kalisch.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Exo. 15:23-26
THE DISAPPOINTMENTS OF HUMAN LIFE
The children of Israel are now in joyful mood. God has won for them a great, and, as it would appear, a final victory over their inveterate enemy. They appreciate the deliverance, and have celebrated it in song. The last notes of the hymn have died away. The Israelites are now travelling onwards. But new needs arise. They require water to quench their thirst. Life is not a long-continued song of triumph, it soon turns to want again. The experiences of life are varied and changeful, and soon pass from joy to sorrow.
I. That the disappointments which men experience frequently occur in connection with the apparently trivial things of life. They could not drink of the waters of Marah. The Israelites had passed three days in the wilderness without finding water. The march long. The climate hot. The fatigue great. And so men have frequently to pursue life for a time in the absence of needful things. This shows them their dependence upon God. If man never lacked any good thing, he would imagine that life was self-supporting, and that he could do without the aid of heaven. The absence of needful good teaches men to value its return. In this country we have plenty of water, it comes to us through unnumbered channels. If we were called to journey without it we should prize it more. The common gifts of God are beyond price. Israel, no doubt, watched eagerly for water. Men soon become anxious when the temporal supplies of life fail. Now it is found. What joy in the camp, as the news is conveyed from one rank to another. But the water is bitter! We cannot judge of earthly things according to their appearance. The water looked all right. It tasted bitter. Many things in the world look well, but experience proves them bitter to the taste. The world itself appears as though it would quench the moral thirst of man, he welcomes it with song, but soon finds it bitter to his soul. It is well that some things are bitter, or men would take them in poisonous draughts. All the waters of life are embittered by sin. They look well, but are vanity and vexation of spirit. Thus we see that men are disappointed in reference to the ordinary things of daily life. We are not often disappointed in great things. Life has not many great occasions in it. Little things fret and perplex us. We are disappointed by the appearance of things; the business, the friendship, and the pleasure looked well, but taste badly. Sin looks well; but tastes bitter. Men are deceived in the commonest things of life. Israel did not expect trial, they had only just finished singing their hymn of praise. Disappointment comes soon upon joy. It is the way of God thus to exercise the faith and patience of His people. At Marah the cloud was before Israel. God is with the good in their sorrows.
II. That the disappointments of life seem far more frequently to lead men to murmuring than to prayer. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? Thus the Israelites gave way to murmuring; only one man amongst them prayed. And in the disappointments of life only one man in a crowd will seek communion with Heaven. Grumbling is more natural than prayer. The former is folly. The latter is healing. Man likes to have all his own way. He ought to submit to the will of God. The best servants of God are complained against. The healing ministries of life are revealed to the praying spirit. When men murmur they are deaf to the voice of God; they are blind to the remedy He would disclose to them. Prayer will sweeten bitter waters more quickly than aught else. Men murmur at the disappointments of life, recall not the desponding memories of past help. Men soon murmur when they are displeased. Would it not have been wiser if these Israelites had called to mind the deliverance which God had wrought out for them in the past? Had He not brought them out of Egypt, and through the waters of the Red Sea as on dry land, and saved them from life-long enemies? Had He done this that He might destroy them with thirst a few days afterwards? Certainly not. But unbelief views things on the dark side. It only looks at the bitter waters it cannot sweeten. And shall we murmur at the disappointments of life, when we remember the Divine mercies of the past? Men often murmur about the disappointments of life to those who are the least to blame for them, and who perhaps are likewise suffering from them. The Israelites murmured at Moses. He was a good man. He was their best friend. He had not made the waters bitter. He was as thirsty as any of them. How cowardly. How cruel. How discouraging. But Moses was a true man, and found his refuge in prayer. Ministers should imitate his example. Crowds are fickle in their moods.
III. That the disappointments of life are often removed and made a blessing to them by the kindly aid of Heaven. And the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. Moses prayed when the people murmured. He did not hold an altercation with them. In answer to prayer the remedy was revealed, and the waters became all the sweeter for having been bitter. The tree had no healing virtue in it. It was the means used by God, and shows His rule over all the things of His universe. We must not abuse a single tree in Gods universe, it contains sacred possibilities. Men must employ secondary causes to heal their disappointments. Prayer shows where they are to be found. God can make a way out of the greatest trial. We must do as Heaven tells us in the hour of grief, for if we refuse to cast the tree into the bitter waters they will not be sweetened.
IV. That when the disappointments of life are removed, then God admonishes men in reference to their future conduct. And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and will do that which is right in His sight, and will give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord that healeth thee.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exo. 15:23-24. After worship done in memory of mercies, the Church must go on its pilgrimage.
Monuments of trial God sometimes sets up in the names of places for posterity.
Carnal Israelites soon exchange worship for discontent.
Foolish unbelieving creatures are running to creatures for drink rather than to God.
Exo. 15:25-27. When unbelievers are murmuring under trial, Gods servants are praying.
Gods faithful ones shall never seek His face in vain.
God will show His servants how to turn bitter into sweet, when they truly seek Him.
Obedience must use the appointed means to receive the desired issue.
Where God gives mercies to His people, He also gives laws and judgments.
Marah and Elim. The alternating experiences of human life.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Marah-waters! Exo. 15:23. Captain Palmer says that for three days journey southward along the coast, the desert plain is, practically speaking, waterless, there being only a few wretched brackish springs, about one in every hundred square miles, of which the water is unfit for use. It was after three days that the minstrels became murmurers for water. The sensation which we call thirst is no more like the mad and raging fever-thirst of the desert, than our cool and verdant plains are like the baked and blistering rocks of that burning wilderness. So that Israel might well be bitter in their spirit when they came upon a bitter spring. There is still a salt and bitter fountain here. The Speakers Commentary says that Wellstead tasted the waters and muttered the word Marah! whereon his Bedawin guide exclaimed, You speak the word of truth; they are indeed marah. The early Christian Church met with their marah as they first entered on the pilgrim-way. That marah is still in the wilderness-life of the Church, so that her successive members taste and cry, Marah! But there is a tree whose leaves drop sweetness, and whose taste is balm. Bedawin had no tree to cast into Wellsteads marah, but the Christian has. Jesus, the Tree of Life, extends His bending branches to the anxious touch, making each stagnant marsh a rivulet of health, turning the bitterest brook into a fountain of living waters
The Cross on which the Saviour died
And conquerd for His saints,
This is the tree, by faith applied,
Which sweetens all complaints.
Marah-bitterness! Exo. 15:25. Pure, cool, and pellucid Water is the gift of God. As it comes from heaven, it is always clear and uncontaminated. It is only in earths reservoirs that it sometimes gets muddied. There are salts of copper in the soil through which the current percolatesthe smoke and soot of city-life defile its excellencethe manchineel sheds its deadly fruits into the fountain. Adams life was a pure gift from God; but he defiled it. Man sullies the purity of Gods blessingturns them into Marah-bitterness. The blessing was good enough till once it came to man; but the bitter soil made the fountain bitter. If the cup which catches the morning shower was clear as crystal, and if the atmosphere were not already contaminated by the smoke and soot of human desires, the blessings would remain pure. But man makes them marah.
Yet theres a wonder-working wood,
Ive heard believers say,
Can make those bitter waters good,
And take the curse away.
ElimSymbolism! Exo. 15:27. This is now called Gharandel. It is still a pleasant place, having water in abundance, grass, and palm-trees. Kalisch beautifully applies Elim to the Lords-day. The traveller, on a rough and dusty road, when from time to time he finds by the wayside a quiet green resting-place, from which he may look back on the way he has come, and also forward to the end of his journey, will surely stop at it for a little with thankfulness. And what are Thy Sabbaths, O Lord, with their sweet services and their solemn hours, but fresh and peaceful oases such as these, inviting me to put away for a moment the troubles and the fatigues of the highway of life, that I may breathe awhile and gather new strength for my journey. Ye giddy crowd, who run and run on, without looking round, until ye slide into the grave, Oh! look at these oases provided for you by God, who pities you more than you do yourselves: If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning! says the Psalmist. And let my right hand forget its cunning, and let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I ever forget you, ye solemn, holy hours prepared for me by God in the place where His glory dwells, and where He invites me to enjoy His own rest!
Elim I sweet foretaste of rest and of blessing,
Soon must be left for the lengthening way;
But it is well that Thy pilgrims should gather
Courage and strength for the wearisome day.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(23) The waters of Marah . . . were bitter.The extreme bitterness of the springs at the southern extremity of the wilderness of Shur is witnessed to by all travellers. (Burckhardt: Travels in Syria, p. 777; Robinson: Palestine, vol. i., p. 106; Wellsted, Arabia, vol. ii., p. 38, &c.) There are several such springs, that called Ain Howarah being the most copious, but scarcely so bitter as some others.
Therefore the name of it was called Marah.Marah means bitterness both in Hebrew and in Arabic. It appears to be a form of the root which we find also in mare and amarus.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
23. Marah Bitterness, a place of bitter or brackish water . This does not enable us to locate the station, since all the springs of the region are saltish . Since the time of Burckhardt Marah has been generally identified with Hawwara, a little over forty miles, or about three days’ journey, from Ayun Musa, and the first spring after leaving that station. But whether Marah be here, or five miles farther on, as Lepsius supposes, at Gharandel, or three miles back, at Wady Amarah, is of comparatively little moment, seeing that we certainly know that all of these spots are on the track of the great host of Israel as they moved towards Mount Sinai. Between the long white mountain wall of er-Rahah on their left, and the blue Red Sea waters on their right, they moved southeasterly across a great whitish gravelly plain, at times amid sand mounds and low, flat, barren hills of limestone and chalk, sparkling now and then with crystals of gypsum, and at other times crossing wadies, or dry water-courses, running from the mountain range across their course, and fringed occasionally with dwarf palms, stunted tamarisks, shrubby broom, and other hardy plants of the desert. There was no shade, and the sun’s rays were reflected hot and dazzling from the white hills and plains. Across the sea on their right the dark form of the promontory of Attaka reminded them of the Egypt that they had left. Accustomed all their lives to the sweet Nile water, which the Egyptians deem unsurpassed in the world, they had now for three days been drinking from their water-skins of the supply laid in at the last station, which was most likely Ayun Musa, anticipating the fountains, of which Moses had probably told them, at this oasis. And now they find the springs so bitter that they cannot drink of them.
Hawwara is now a spring but about eight feet across, within a calcareous mound which has been formed from its deposits. Two stunted palm trees grow near it, affording the weary traveller a delicious shade, and a number of ghurkud bushes straggle around it low thorny shrubs, bearing small juicy berries, much like our barberry. Murray says, “Should the thirsty traveller hasten forward now to drink at the fountain, his Arabs will restrain him by the cry, Murr! murr! ‘Bitter! bitter!’” The water is strongly impregnated with salt and alum, and yet it is frequently quite drinkable. Holland says it is often more palatable than that which has been brought down in skins from Suez.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 15:23. When they came to Marah Moses tells us, in the close of the verse, that the place was called Marah, from the bitterness of the waters there. “In travelling from Sdur, Or Shur,” says Dr. Shaw, “towards Mount Sinai, we came into the desert, as it is still called, of Marah, where the Israelites met with the bitter waters of Marah. As this circumstance did not happen till after they had wandered three days in the wilderness, Exo 15:22 we may probably fix these waters at Corondel, where there is still a small rill, which, unless it be diluted by the dews and rain, still continues to be brackish. Near this place the sea forms itself into a large bay, called Berk el Coronarel, i.e. the lake of Corondel; which is remarkable from a strong current which sets into it from the northward, particularly at the recess of the tide. The Arabs, agreeably to the interpretation of Kolzum, their name for this sea, preserve a tradition, that a numerous host was formerly drowned at this place; occasioned, no doubt, by what is related, ch. Exo 14:30 that the Israelites saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore; i.e. all along, as we may presume, from Sdur to Colondel; and at Corondel, especially, from the assistance and termination of the current.” Several heathen writers agree, that there were bitter waters in the parts where the Israelites were now travelling, which is supposed by many to have been owing to the saline and nitrous particles wherewith the soil thereabout is strongly impregnated.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Is not this a spiritual lesson also? When we obtain creature comforts, are they not sometimes, nay, for the most part, bitter? Marah means bitter. Rth 1:20 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 15:23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they [were] bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
Ver. 23. They could not drink. ] Water they now had, but what the better? God can give us blessings, but with such a tang, that we shall have no great joy of them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exodus
MARAH
Exo 15:23 – – Exo 15:25
I. The time of reaching Marah-just after the Red Sea. The Israelites were encamped for a few days on the shore to shake themselves together, and then at this, their very first station, they began to experience the privations which were to be their lot for forty years. Their course was like that of a ship that is in the stormy Channel as soon as it leaves the shelter of the pier at Dover, not like that of one that glides down the Thames for miles.
After great moments and high triumphs in life comes Marah.
Marah was just before Elim-the alternation, how blessed! The shade of palms and cool water of the wells, one for each tribe and one for each ‘elder.’ So we have alternations in life and experience.
II. The wrong and the right ways of taking the bitter experience. The people grumbled: Moses cried to the Lord. The quick forgetfulness of deliverances. The true use of speech is not complaint, but prayer.
III. The power that changes bitter to sweet. The manner of the miracle is singular. God hides Himself behind Moses, and His miraculous power behind the material agent. Perhaps the manner of the miracle was intended to suggest a parallel with the first plague. There the rod made the Nile water undrinkable. There is a characteristic economy in the miraculous, and outward things are used, as Christ used the pool and the saliva and the touch, to help the weak faith of the deaf and dumb man.
What changes bitter to sweet for us?-the Cross, the remembrance of Christ’s death. ‘Consider Him that endured.’ The Cross is the true tree which, when ‘cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.’
Recognition of and yielding to God’s will: that is the one thing which for us changes all. The one secret of peace and of getting sweetness out of bitterness is loving acceptance of the will of God.
Discernment of purpose in God’s ‘bitter’ dealings-’for our profit.’ The dry rod ‘budded.’ The Prophet’s roll was first bitter, then sweet. Affliction ‘afterwards yieldeth the peaceable fruit.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Marah = Bitter. The Divine principle in the training of God’s People. Foreshown in Abraham’s furnace and lamp; Marah before Elim; wilderness before Canaan; cross before crown; worse before better (Joh 2:10); suffering before glory (Luk 24:26, Luk 24:46; 2Ti 2:11, 2Ti 2:12; compare Rom 8:17, Rom 8:18; 2Co 4:17, 2Co 4:18. Jam 1:12. Rev 2:10. 1Pe 1:11; 1Pe 4:13; 1Pe 5:1, 1Pe 5:10, Heb 12:11. Psa 126:6; Psa 66:10-13. Joh 12:24. Mat 5:4. Joh 16:20, Joh 16:22).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Marah: Num 33:8
Marah: i.e. bitterness, Rth 1:20
Reciprocal: Exo 14:11 – Because Num 11:1 – And when Num 20:2 – no 2Ki 2:19 – the water 2Ki 4:40 – death Act 7:36 – and in the wilderness Jam 3:12 – so Rev 8:11 – many