Exodus 15:22-27

The LORD Provides Water

22 ¹Then Moses led Israel from the Red * Sea, and they went out into ²the wilderness of ³Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.

23 When they came to ⁴Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore * it was named * Marah.

24 So the people ⁵grumbled at Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?"

25 Then he ⁶cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him ⁷a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He ⁸made for them a statute and regulation, and there He ⁹tested them.

26 And He said, "¹⁰If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear ¹¹to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, ¹²I will put none * of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, ¹³the LORD, am your healer."

27 Then they came to ¹⁴Elim where there were twelve * springs of water and seventy date palms, and they camped there beside the waters.

Exodus 15:22-27 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 15

This chapter contains the song of Moses, and of the children of Israel, on the banks of the Red sea; in which they celebrate their passage through it, the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in it, and the glory of the divine perfections displayed therein, interspersed with prophetic hints of things future, Ex 15:1-19 which same song was sung by the women, with Miriam at the head of them, attended with timbrels and dances, Ex 15:20,21, an account is given of the march of the children of Israel from the Red sea to the wilderness of Shur, and of the bitter waters found at Marah, which occasioned a murmuring, and of their being made sweet by casting a tree into them, Ex 15:22-25 when they were told by the Lord, that if they would yield obedience to his commandments, they should be free from the diseases the Egyptians had been afflicted with, Ex 15:26, and the chapter is concluded with their coming to Elim, where they found twelve wells of water, and seventy palm trees, and there encamped, Ex 15:27.

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 77:20; Psalms 78:52, 53
• 2. Numbers 33:8
• 3. Genesis 16:7; Genesis 20:1; Genesis 25:18
• 4. Numbers 33:8; Ruth 1:20
• 5. Exodus 14:11; Exodus 16:2; Psalms 106:13
• 6. Exodus 14:10
• 7. Ezekiel 47:7, 8
• 8. Joshua 24:25
• 9. Exodus 16:4; Deuteronomy 8:2, 16; Judges 2:22; Judges 3:1, 4; Psalms 66:10
• 10. Exodus 19:5, 6; Deuteronomy 7:12
• 11. Exodus 20:2-17
• 12. Deuteronomy 7:15; Deuteronomy 28:58, 60
• 13. Exodus 23:25; Deuteronomy 32:39; Psalms 41:3, 4; Psalms 103:3; Psalms 147:3
• 14. Numbers 33:9

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "caused Israel to journey"
• [b] Lit "Sea of Reeds"
• [c] Lit "from"
• [d] Heb "Marim"
• [e] I.e. bitterness