Ma'rah. (bitterness). A place which lay in the wilderness of Shur or Etham, three days journey distant, Exodus 15:23; Numbers 33:8, from the place at which the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, and where was a spring of bitter water, sweetened, subsequently, by the casting in of a tree which "the Lord showed" to Moses.
Howarah, distant 16 1/2 hours (47 miles) from Ayoun Mousa, the Israelites' first encampment, has been by many identified with it, apparently because it is the bitterest water in the neighborhood.