MARAH, The Waters of, Sylvester Hassell The Israelites, after giving thanks to God for their deliverance, took up their line of march for the mount of God. They thirsted and complained, and found the waters of Marah, which, being bitter and unpalatable, they murmured the more. These were sweetened by a tree which Moses threw into the waters, and then the people became contented. But great was their delight when they reached the beautiful oasis of Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and three score and ten palm trees, the trees to afford them shelter and the wells to afford them water, as a recompense for their weary journey over thirsty land and in the heat of the sun.
These were figurative of the twelve tribes and seventy elders, in the old dispensation, and the twelve apostles and seventy ministers of the gospel in the new……. Even so, as it has been beautifully remarked, the bitter waters of affliction are always sweetened by casting in the tree of the cross” (Hassell’s History pg 83)