Exodus 15:23
New International Version
When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.)

New Living Translation
When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”).

English Standard Version
When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah.

Berean Standard Bible
And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there because it was bitter. (That is why it was named Marah.)

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah.

New American Standard Bible
When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, because they were bitter; for that reason it was named Marah.

NASB 1995
When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah.

NASB 1977
And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah.

Legacy Standard Bible
And they came to Marah, but they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah.

Amplified Bible
Then they came to Marah, but they could not drink its waters because they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah (bitter).

Christian Standard Bible
They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water at Marah because it was bitter—that is why it was named Marah.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water at Marah because it was bitter—that is why it was named Marah.

American Standard Version
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.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And they came to Murath and they did not find drinking waters from Murath because they were bitter; because of this, he called the name of that country Murath.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
and they came to Merrha, and could not drink of Merrha, for it was bitter; therefore he named the name of that place, Bitterness.

Contemporary English Version
They did find water at Marah, but it was bitter, which is how that place got its name.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And they came into Mara, and they could not drink the waters of Mara, because they were bitter: whereupon he gave a name also agreeable to the place, calling it Mara, that is, bitterness.

English Revised Version
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.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
When they came to Marah, they couldn't drink the water because it tasted bitter. That's why the place was called Marah [Bitter Place].

Good News Translation
Then they came to a place called Marah, but the water there was so bitter that they could not drink it. That is why it was named Marah.

International Standard Version
When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water at Marah because it was bitter. (That is why it's called Marah.)

JPS Tanakh 1917
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.

Literal Standard Version
and they come to Marah, and have not been able to drink the waters of Marah, for they [are] bitter; therefore [one] has called its name Marah.

Majority Standard Bible
And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there because it was bitter. (That is why it was named Marah.)

New American Bible
they arrived at Marah, where they could not drink its water, because it was too bitter. Hence this place was called Marah.

NET Bible
Then they came to Marah, but they were not able to drink the waters of Marah, because they were bitter. (That is why its name was Marah.)

New Revised Standard Version
When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter. That is why it was called Marah.

New Heart English Bible
When they came to Marah, they couldn't drink from the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore its name was called Marah.

Webster's Bible Translation
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.

World English Bible
When they came to Marah, they couldn’t drink from the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore its name was called Marah.

Young's Literal Translation
and they come in to Marah, and have not been able to drink the waters of Marah, for they are bitter; therefore hath one called its name Marah.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Waters of Marah
22Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur. For three days they walked in the desert without finding water. 23And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there because it was bitter. (That is why it was named Marah.) 24So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”…

Cross References
Numbers 33:8
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.

Ruth 1:20
"Do not call me Naomi," she replied. "Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me.


Treasury of Scripture

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.

Marah

Numbers 33:8
And they departed from before Pihahiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, and went three days' journey in the wilderness of Etham, and pitched in Marah.

marah.

Ruth 1:20
And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.

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Able Bitter Couldn't Drink Drinking Good Marah Water Waters
Exodus 15
1. The song of Moses, Miriam, and Israel on their deliverance
22. The people want water in the desert
23. The waters at Marah are bitter,
24. they murmur,
25. Moses prays, and sweetens the waters by God's direction
27. They encamp at Elim, where are twelve wells, and seventy palm trees














(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.

Verse 23. - And when they came to Marah. It is not clear whether the place already bore the name on the arrival of the Israelites, or only received it from them. Marah would mean "bitter" in Arabic no less than in Hebrew. The identification of Marah with the present Ain Howarah, in which most modern writers acquiesce, is uncertain from the fact that there are several bitter springs in the vicinity - one of them even bitterer than Howarah. (See Winer, Realworterbuch, ad voc. MARAH) We may, however, feel confident that the bitter waters of which the Israelites "would not drink" were in this neighbourhood, a little north of the Wady Ghurundel.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
And when they came
וַיָּבֹ֣אוּ (way·yā·ḇō·’ū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

to Marah,
מָרָ֔תָה (mā·rā·ṯāh)
Noun - proper - feminine singular | third person feminine singular
Strong's 4785: Marah -- a bitter spring in the Sinai peninsula

they could
יָֽכְל֗וּ (yā·ḵə·lū)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 3201: To be able, have power

not
וְלֹ֣א (wə·lō)
Conjunctive waw | Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

drink
לִשְׁתֹּ֥ת (liš·tōṯ)
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 8354: To imbibe

the water
מַ֙יִם֙ (ma·yim)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 4325: Water, juice, urine, semen

[there]
מִמָּרָ֔ה (mim·mā·rāh)
Preposition-m | Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 4785: Marah -- a bitter spring in the Sinai peninsula

because
כִּ֥י (kî)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

it
הֵ֑ם (hêm)
Pronoun - third person masculine plural
Strong's 1992: They

was bitter.
מָרִ֖ים (mā·rîm)
Adjective - masculine plural
Strong's 4751: Bitter, bitterness, bitterly

(That is why
עַל־ (‘al-)
Preposition
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

it was named
קָרָֽא־ (qā·rā-)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7121: To call, proclaim, read

Marah.)
מָרָֽה׃ (mā·rāh)
Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 4785: Marah -- a bitter spring in the Sinai peninsula


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OT Law: Exodus 15:23 When they came to Marah they couldn't (Exo. Ex)
Exodus 15:22
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