Hebrew word · H4785

מָרָה

marah

Marah

A place name meaning "Bitter" or "Bitterness," formed from the same root as mar. Mentioned again in the wilderness itinerary (Num 33:8–9). The same word, as a personal name, appears in Naomi's "call me Mara" (Ruth 1:20, spelled with a final aleph there).

Appears 5 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Marah = "bitter"

the spring with bitter water which was 3 days travel from the crossing place of the Red Sea in the peninsula of Sinai

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Exodus 15:23

Range of meaning

A place name meaning "Bitter" or "Bitterness," formed from the same root as mar. Mentioned again in the wilderness itinerary (Num 33:8–9). The same word, as a personal name, appears in Naomi's "call me Mara" (Ruth 1:20, spelled with a final aleph there).

Against the English

English versions transliterate it as "Marah," which hides the pun from readers who do not know Hebrew. BSB, ESV and KJV leave it untranslated; some paraphrases (e.g. NLT) add a note that it means "bitter." The KJV, WEB and YLT keep all three occurrences in the verse; BSB smooths the middle one to "the water there."

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Septuagint transliterates the name as Merra in the first two occurrences but then translates it as Pikria ("Bitterness") at the end, so Greek readers get the pun. Jerome's Latin Vulgate adds an explanation: "Mara, that is, bitterness."

From the study of Numbers 33:8

Range of meaning

A place-name from the root m-r-r, "to be bitter". The adjective mar means bitter in taste and, by extension, bitter in spirit (Naomi's "call me Mara", Ruth 1:20).

Against the English

English versions transliterate it as "Marah". Readers lose that the name itself says "Bitter", which every Hebrew hearer would notice at once.

Used elsewhere in the period

Exodus 15:23–26: the water was too bitter to drink; the people complained; God showed Moses a piece of wood that made the water sweet; there God gave "a statute and an ordinance", tested them, and called himself "YHWH your healer". Traditional identifications include 'Ain Hawarah on the western Sinai coast, but none is certain.

Where it appears

Exodus · 3

  1. Exodus 15:23 מָרָ֔תָה מִמָּרָ֔ה מָרָֽה׃ Marah towards, from Marah, Marah

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

    Here: "To Marah" — the place name with a Hebrew ending meaning "toward." At this point the reader hears only a name; the verse will reveal what it means.

Numbers · 2

  1. Numbers 33:8 בְּמָרָֽה׃ at Marah

    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.

    Here: A place whose name means "bitter". Exodus 15:23–25 explains it: the water was bitter until God showed Moses a piece of wood that made it sweet. Here the name alone brings that story to mind.

  2. Numbers 33:9 מִמָּרָ֔ה from Marah

    They set out from Marah and came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.