Marah (Bible)
Encyclopedia
Marah is one of the locations which the Torah
identifies as having been travelled through by the Israelites, during the Exodus
.
The liberated Israelites set out on their journey in the desert, somewhere in the Sinai Peninsula
. And it becomes clear that they are not spiritually free.
Reaching Marah, the place of a well of bitter water, bitterness and murmuring, Israel receives a first set of divine ordinances and the foundation of the Shabbat
. The shortage of water there is followed by a shortness of food. Moses throws a log into the bitter water, making it sweet.
Later God sends manna
and quail. The desert is the ground where God acquires his people. The 'murmuring motif' will - from here on - be a recurring perspective of the wandering Jewish people.
, and Yahweh responds by showing Moses a certain piece of wood, which Moses then throws into the water, making it sweet and fit to drink. There is nothing necessarily miraculous about the sweetening of the water, since there is a type of barberry which grows in the desert and has the herbal property
of sweetening brackish water. Some biblical scholars
see the narrative about Marah as having originated as an aetiological myth seeking to justify its name.
The text goes on to state that in this location, a decree and a law were made by Yahweh for the Israelites, and that Yahweh tested them. However, according to textual scholars
the narrative concerning the bitter water comes from the Jahwist
account, while the mention of law and testing is actually part of the Elohist
account; textual scholars view this as the Elohist version of the naming of Massah
, since the triconsonantal root of the Hebrew word used for tested here (נסה) is very similar to that for Massah (מסה), and the later explanation of Massah connects the name to the same root (נסה). The Talmud
argues that the text is referring to three additional laws being added to the Noahide laws
, namely that tribunal
s should be created, children should obey parents, and that the Sabbath
should be observed. In the biblical text, Yahweh also states that he would not bring any diseases upon the Israelites if they obey Yahweh's decrees; biblical scholars regard this as a redactional addition, and appears to be an attempt to distract the reader from the implication in the previous verse that laws were given by Yahweh before Sinai
was reached.
, while according to the stations list
in the Book of Numbers
, the Israelites had reached Marah after travelling in the Wilderness of Etham
; both biblical sources state that the Israelites were at Marah before reaching Elim
. Textual scholars
regard the geographic information as deriving from two different versions of the same independent list of stations, one version being the list which takes up a chapter of the Book of Numbers, and the other version being slotted around the Marah narrative and around other narratives in the Book of Exodus and Book of Numbers, as appropriate; according to this view, the latter version of this list would originally have read ...and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water, then they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, ..., without mentioning Marah.
The exact location of Marah is uncertain, as are the positions of Etham, Shur, and Elim; the identification of these locations is heavily dependent on the identification of the Biblical Mount Sinai
. Traditionally, Sinai was equated with one of the mountains at the south of the Sinai Peninsula
leading to the identification of Marah as Ain Hawarah, a salty spring roughly 47 miles southeast from Suez
. However, the majority of both scholars and religious authorities believe that this traditional identification of Sinai is inaccurate, with the suggested alternatives being in the north and centre of the Sinai peninsula, in the Hejaz
, and in the north eastern Arabah
; these identifications would suggest that locating Marah far to the southeast of Suez would be a substantial detour of the Israelites' route. Consequently some scholars have proposed to identify Marah as Ain Naba, a brackish fountain located just 10 miles southeast of Suez, while others have proposed to identify Marah as the Small Bitter Lake
(Arabic: Al Buhayrat al Murrah as Sughra) located about 20 miles north of Suez; Ain Naba is more geographically convenient if Mount Sinai is a location in the Hejaz or central Sinai Peninsula, while the Small Bitter Lake is more geographically convenient for Mount Sinai being located in the north of the Sinai Peninsula or at the north eastern Arabah.
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
identifies as having been travelled through by the Israelites, during the Exodus
The Exodus
The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...
.
The liberated Israelites set out on their journey in the desert, somewhere in the Sinai Peninsula
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...
. And it becomes clear that they are not spiritually free.
Reaching Marah, the place of a well of bitter water, bitterness and murmuring, Israel receives a first set of divine ordinances and the foundation of the Shabbat
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
. The shortage of water there is followed by a shortness of food. Moses throws a log into the bitter water, making it sweet.
Later God sends manna
Manna
Manna or Manna wa Salwa , sometimes or archaically spelled mana, is the name of an edible substance that God provided for the Israelites during their travels in the desert according to the Bible.It was said to be sweet to the taste, like honey....
and quail. The desert is the ground where God acquires his people. The 'murmuring motif' will - from here on - be a recurring perspective of the wandering Jewish people.
Events
The narrative concerning Marah in the Book of Exodus states that the Israelites had been wandering in the desert for three days without water; according to the narrative, Marah had water, but it was undrinkably bitter, hence the name, which means bitterness. In the text, when the Israelites reach Marah they complain about the undrinkability, so Moses complains to YahwehYahweh
Yahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...
, and Yahweh responds by showing Moses a certain piece of wood, which Moses then throws into the water, making it sweet and fit to drink. There is nothing necessarily miraculous about the sweetening of the water, since there is a type of barberry which grows in the desert and has the herbal property
Herbalism
Herbalism is a traditional medicinal or folk medicine practice based on the use of plants and plant extracts. Herbalism is also known as botanical medicine, medical herbalism, herbal medicine, herbology, herblore, and phytotherapy...
of sweetening brackish water. Some biblical scholars
Biblical criticism
Biblical criticism is the scholarly "study and investigation of Biblical writings that seeks to make discerning judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work...
see the narrative about Marah as having originated as an aetiological myth seeking to justify its name.
The text goes on to state that in this location, a decree and a law were made by Yahweh for the Israelites, and that Yahweh tested them. However, according to textual scholars
Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
the narrative concerning the bitter water comes from the Jahwist
Jahwist
The Jahwist, also referred to as the Jehovist, Yahwist, or simply as J, is one of the sources of the Torah. It gets its name from the fact that it characteristically uses the term Yahweh for God in the book of Genesis...
account, while the mention of law and testing is actually part of the Elohist
Elohist
The Elohist is one of four sources of the Torah described by the Documentary Hypothesis. Its name comes from the term it uses for God: Elohim; it is characterised by, among other things, an abstract view of God, using "Horeb" instead of "Sinai" for the mountain where Moses received the laws of...
account; textual scholars view this as the Elohist version of the naming of Massah
Massah
Massah is one of the locations which the Torah identifies as having been travelled through by the Israelites, during the Exodus, although the list of visited stations in the Book of Numbers doesn't mention it...
, since the triconsonantal root of the Hebrew word used for tested here (נסה) is very similar to that for Massah (מסה), and the later explanation of Massah connects the name to the same root (נסה). The Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
argues that the text is referring to three additional laws being added to the Noahide laws
Noahide Laws
The Seven Laws of Noah form the major part of the Noachide Laws, or Noahide Code. This code is a set of moral imperatives that, according to the Talmud, were given by God as a binding set of laws for the "children of Noah" – that is, all of humankind...
, namely that tribunal
Tribunal
A tribunal in the general sense is any person or institution with the authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title....
s should be created, children should obey parents, and that the Sabbath
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
should be observed. In the biblical text, Yahweh also states that he would not bring any diseases upon the Israelites if they obey Yahweh's decrees; biblical scholars regard this as a redactional addition, and appears to be an attempt to distract the reader from the implication in the previous verse that laws were given by Yahweh before Sinai
Biblical Mount Sinai
The Biblical Mount Sinai is the mountain at which the Book of Exodus states that the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God...
was reached.
Speculations about the Location
According to the Book of Exodus, the Israelites reached Marah after travelling in the Wilderness of ShurShur (Bible)
Shur is a location mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. When Hagar flees from Abraham, the Angel of the Lord find her by a "spring on the way to Shur." .According to Exodus 15:22, Marah is located in the "wilderness of Shur."...
, while according to the stations list
Stations list
The Bible lists 42 locations or "stations" visited by the Israelites following their exodus from Egypt. They are definitively listed in , but also are given at length in Exodus and Deuteronomy. Biblical commentators like St Jerome in his Epistle to Fabiola, Bede and St Peter Damian discussed them...
in the Book of Numbers
Book of Numbers
The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch....
, the Israelites had reached Marah after travelling in the Wilderness of Etham
Etham
Etham was the second place at which the Israelites stopped during the Exodus. According to the Torah, Etham was on the edge of the wilderness . It has been suggested that Etham is another name for Khetam, or fortress, on the Shur or great wall of Egypt, which extended from the Mediterranean Sea...
; both biblical sources state that the Israelites were at Marah before reaching Elim
Elim (Bible)
Elim was one of the places where the Israelites camped following their Exodus from Egypt. It is referenced in Exodus 15.27 and Numbers 33.9 as a place where "there were twelve wells of water, and seventy date palms," and that the Israelites "camped there near the water".From the information that...
. Textual scholars
Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
regard the geographic information as deriving from two different versions of the same independent list of stations, one version being the list which takes up a chapter of the Book of Numbers, and the other version being slotted around the Marah narrative and around other narratives in the Book of Exodus and Book of Numbers, as appropriate; according to this view, the latter version of this list would originally have read ...and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water, then they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, ..., without mentioning Marah.
The exact location of Marah is uncertain, as are the positions of Etham, Shur, and Elim; the identification of these locations is heavily dependent on the identification of the Biblical Mount Sinai
Biblical Mount Sinai
The Biblical Mount Sinai is the mountain at which the Book of Exodus states that the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God...
. Traditionally, Sinai was equated with one of the mountains at the south of the Sinai Peninsula
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...
leading to the identification of Marah as Ain Hawarah, a salty spring roughly 47 miles southeast from Suez
Suez
Suez is a seaport city in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez , near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has three harbors, Adabya, Ain Sokhna and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities...
. However, the majority of both scholars and religious authorities believe that this traditional identification of Sinai is inaccurate, with the suggested alternatives being in the north and centre of the Sinai peninsula, in the Hejaz
Hejaz
al-Hejaz, also Hijaz is a region in the west of present-day Saudi Arabia. Defined primarily by its western border on the Red Sea, it extends from Haql on the Gulf of Aqaba to Jizan. Its main city is Jeddah, but it is probably better known for the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina...
, and in the north eastern Arabah
Arabah
The Arabah , also known as Aravah, is a section of the Great Rift Valley running in a north-south orientation between the southern end of the Sea of Galilee down to the Dead Sea and continuing further south where it ends at the Gulf of Aqaba. It includes most of the border between Israel to the...
; these identifications would suggest that locating Marah far to the southeast of Suez would be a substantial detour of the Israelites' route. Consequently some scholars have proposed to identify Marah as Ain Naba, a brackish fountain located just 10 miles southeast of Suez, while others have proposed to identify Marah as the Small Bitter Lake
Great Bitter Lake
The Great Bitter Lake is a salt water lake between the north and south part of the Suez Canal. It is adjoined by the Small Bitter Lake . Before the Canal was built, their site was occupied by dry salt valleys. Together, the Bitter Lakes now have a surface area of about 250 km²...
(Arabic: Al Buhayrat al Murrah as Sughra) located about 20 miles north of Suez; Ain Naba is more geographically convenient if Mount Sinai is a location in the Hejaz or central Sinai Peninsula, while the Small Bitter Lake is more geographically convenient for Mount Sinai being located in the north of the Sinai Peninsula or at the north eastern Arabah.
Literature
- "The Torah - A Modern Commentary" by Gunther W. Plaut, pp. 495; Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1981, New York.