Bitter water, new trust
Exodus & Wilderness · Reviewed · BSB
Content revision: deee97cb953a6ff2 · Editorial review: 2026-09-23
Date: c. 1446 BC · Year 1, after the sea crossing. Dated from 1 Kings 6:1, which places the Exodus 480 years before Solomon began the temple (c. 966 BC). Many scholars instead date the Exodus to about 1260 BC.
After three days without water in the wilderness, Israel reaches Marah, where the water is bitter. God makes it drinkable and calls the people to listen to his voice.
Exodus 15:22–26 describes three days without water, bitter water at Marah, and water made drinkable. The testing and instruction belong to this account.
Primary Scripture
15:22 Then 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.
15:23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there because it was bitter. (That is why it was named Marah.)
15:24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
15:25 And Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log. And when he cast it into the waters, they were sweetened. There the LORD made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He tested them,
15:26 saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
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.
Related Scripture
Related teaching: Deuteronomy 8 reflects on wilderness testing and manna across the wider journey. It does not name Marah or specifically retell its water episode.
Location evidence
Ain Hawarah is a proposed site. The exact location and path from the sea remain uncertain.
Event map marker: Proposed site; [longitude, latitude] = [32.94284, 29.34604]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Marah: Proposed site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [32.94284, 29.34604]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible · site identifications
OpenBible · site identifications
For the class
What is the wilderness revealing about the people’s trust?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (src/data/journey.ts)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm