Marah (Bible) - Speculations About The Location

Speculations About The Location

According to the Book of Exodus, the Israelites reached Marah after travelling in the Wilderness of Shur, while according to the stations list in the Book of Numbers, the Israelites had reached Marah after travelling in the Wilderness of Etham; both biblical sources state that the Israelites were at Marah before reaching Elim. Textual scholars regard the geographic information as deriving from two different versions of the same independent list of stations, one version being the list which takes up a chapter of the Book of Numbers, and the other version being slotted around the Marah narrative and around other narratives in the Book of Exodus and Book of Numbers, as appropriate; according to this view, the latter version of this list would originally have read ...and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water, then they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, ..., without mentioning Marah.

The exact location of Marah is uncertain, as are the positions of Etham, Shur, and Elim; the identification of these locations is heavily dependent on the identification of the Biblical Mount Sinai. Traditionally, Sinai was equated with one of the mountains at the south of the Sinai Peninsula leading to the identification of Marah as Ain Hawarah, a salty spring roughly 47 miles southeast from Suez. However, the majority of both scholars and religious authorities believe that this traditional identification of Sinai is inaccurate, with the suggested alternatives being in the north and centre of the Sinai peninsula, in the Hejaz, and in the north eastern Arabah; these identifications would suggest that locating Marah far to the southeast of Suez would be a substantial detour of the Israelites' route. Consequently some scholars have proposed to identify Marah as Ain Naba, a brackish fountain located just 10 miles southeast of Suez, while others have proposed to identify Marah as the Small Bitter Lake (Arabic: Al Buhayrat al Murrah as Sughra البُحيْرَة المُرَّة الصُغْرَة) located about 20 miles north of Suez; Ain Naba is more geographically convenient if Mount Sinai is a location in the Hejaz or central Sinai Peninsula, while the Small Bitter Lake is more geographically convenient for Mount Sinai being located in the north of the Sinai Peninsula or at the north eastern Arabah.