Marah

From Bible Encyclopedia

mā´ra, mar´a (מרה, mārāh, “bitter” or "bitterness"):

The first camp of the Israelites after the passage of the Red Sea (Exodus 15:23; Numbers33:8 f). The name is derived from the bitterness of the brackish water. Moses cast a tree into the waters which were thus made sweet (Exodus 15:23).

It was a fountain at the sixth station of the Israelites (Exodus 15:23, Exodus 15:24; Numbers33:8) whose waters were so bitter that they could not drink them. On this account they murmured against Moses, who, under divine direction, cast into the fountain “a certain tree” which took away its bitterness, so that the people drank of it. This was probably the 'Ain Hawarah, where there are still several springs of water that are very “bitter,” distant some 47 miles from 'Ayun Mousa.

See Wanderings Of Israel.