The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 19

8) a.ppe11rs to ha.ve extended from Lake Ser- lanthus emblica) of India. But none of thr,m bonis ou tho north, a.cross the isthmllB, to the is foand in the Sinaitic peninsula. Burck- Red Sea, a.nd a.long its eastern shores as far as hardt suggested (Tra1Je/,,i i1t Syria. p. 47-1) the Wa.dy Ghurundel. It is almost wholly that the berries of the gk.,,rkud (Peganurn waterless; and towards the south, such wells rctusum), a low thorny shrub which grows os exist yield a water that is bitter in the abundantly round the Ain Howarah, may h"ve extreme. Three days. The distance from been used by Moses to sweeten the drink ; Ayun Musa to Ain Howa.rah, the &uppooed but there are three objections to this. 1. representative of Marah, is not more than Moses is not said to have used the berries, but a.bout 36 miles ; but the day's march of so the entire plant ; 2. The berries would n,,t large a multitude through the desert may not have been procurable in April, since they rlo have averaged more than twelve miles. And not ripen till June; and 3. They would not fonnd no water. No doubt the Israelites have prod.need any such effect on the water as carried with them upon the ba.cks of their Burckhardt imagined. In fact there is no asses water in skins, sufficient for their own tree or shrub now growing in the Sinaitic wants during such an interval ; but they can peninsula, which would have any sensible scarcely have carried enough for their cattle. effect on such water as that of Ain Howarah; These must have suffered greatly. and the Bedouins of the neighbourhood know Ver. 23.-And when they oe.me to Me.re.h. of no means by which it can be made drink- It is not clear whether the place already bore able. Many of the Fathers believed that the the name on the arrival of the Israelites, or only " tree " ha.d no natural effect, and was com- received it from them. Marak would mean manded to be thrown in merely to symboli,e " bitter" in Arabic no less than in Hebrew. the purifying power of the Cross of Christ The identification of Marah with the present Bnt to modems snch a view appears to savour Ain Howarah, in which most modem writers of mysticism. It is perhaps most probable acquiesce, is uncertain from the fa.et that there that there was some tree or shrub in the are several bitter springs in the vicinity-one vicinity of the bitter fountain in Moses' time of them even bitterer than Howarah. (See which had a natural purifying e.nd sweetening Winer, Realwiirtef"buck, ad voc. MARAH.) power, bnt that it has now become extinct We may, however, feel confident that the If this be the case, the miracle consisted in bitter waters of which the Israelites " would God/a pointing out the tree to Moses, who had not drink " were in this neighbourhood, a no previous knowledge of it. The waters little north of the W ady Ghurundel. were made sweet. Compo.re the miracle of Ver. 24. - And the people murmured Elisha (2 Kings ii. 19-22) There he made against Moses. As they had already done on for them a statute and e.n ordinance. See the western shores of the Red Sea. t eh. xiv. the next verse. God, it appears, after heal- 11, 12), a.nd as they were about to do so often ing the water, and satisfying the physical before their wanderings were over. (See thirst of his people, gave them an ordinance, below, eh. xvi. 2; xvii. 3; Num. xiv. 2; which he connected by e. promise with xvi. 41 ; Deut. i. 27, etc.) "Murmuring" the miracle. If they would henceforth ren- was the common mode in which they vented der strict obedience to all bis command- their spleen, when anything went ill with ments, then he would " heal " them as he them ; a.nd a.s :,loses had persuaded them to ha.d healed the water, would keep them free quit Egypt, the murmuring was chiefly at once from physical and from moral e,-iJ, against him. The men who serve a. nation from the diseases of Egypt, and the diseases best a.re during their lifetime least appreci- of their own hearts. And there he proved ated. What shall we drink 1 Few disap- them. From the moment of their quitting pointments a.re harder to bear than that of the Egypt to that of their entering Cana.an, God man, who after long hours of thirst thinks was ever " proving " his people-try iBg them, ~hat he has obtained wherewith to quench his that is-exercising their faith, and patience rntolerable longing, a.nd on rnising the cup to a.nd obedience and power of self-denial, in his lips, finds the draught so nauseous that order to fit them for the position which they ~e cannot swallow it. Very unpalatable water were to occupy in Cana.an. He had proved is swallowed when the thirst is great ( Eothen, them a.t the Red See., when he let them be p. 197). But there is a. limit beyond which shut in between the water and the host of the nature will not go. There " me.y be water, Egyptians-he proved them now at Marah by water everywhere, yet not a. drop to drink." a. bitter disappointment-he proved them Vers. 25, 26.-The Lord ehewed him e. tree. a.gain at Meribah (eh. xvii. 1-7); at Sinai -Severa.I trees or plants belonging to dif- (eh. xx. 20); at Taberah (Num. xi. 1--3); ferent parts of the world, are said to possess at Kibroth-battaavah ( i'b. verse 3!) ; at the quality of rendering bitter water sweet Kadesh (ib. xiii. 26-33), and elsewhere. For and agreeable ; as the nellimaram of Coro- forty years he led them through the wilder- rnandel, the sassafms of Florida., the yerva ness "to prove them, to know what was in Ca11iani of Peru, 11nd the perru 11elli (Phy- their heart" (Deut. viii.), to fit them for their C 2  20 THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [en. xv. 23-2i.