The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
The Waters of Marah
Exodus 15:22–27 — The Waters of Marah. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
22Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur. For three days they walked in the desert without finding water.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mō·šeh ’eṯ- way·yas·sa‘ yiś·rā·’êl sūp̄ mî·yam- way·yê·ṣə·’ū ’el- miḏ·bar- šūr šə·lō·šeṯ- yā·mîm way·yê·lə·ḵū bam·miḏ·bār wə·lō- mā·ṣə·’ū mā·yim
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-made-journey Moses Israel from-Sea-of-Reeds, and-they-went-out into wilderness-of Shur; and-they-walked three days in-the-wilderness and-not they-found water.
Where the English smooths the original
Here we see that deliverances, however great, do not exempt from future difficulties and trials. Never was a greater deliverance, of a temporal nature, wrought out for any people than that of the Israelites from Pharaoh and from Egypt.
as Luther says, "when the supply fails, our faith is soon gone." Thus even Israel forgot the many proofs of the grace of God, which it had received already.K&D quoting Luther verbatim.
The distance between Ayoun Musa and Huwara, the first spot where any water is found on the route, is 33 geographical miles. The whole district is a tract of sand, or rough gravel.
Shur; so usually called, Genesis 16:7 ; and by the Israelites, Etham, as may be gathered by comparing this place with Numbers 33:8 , for both there and here it is said they went three days in this wilderness.Poole's harmonization of the desert's two names — the textual ground for the Numbers 33 thread.
23And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there because it was bitter. (That is why it was named Marah.)
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yā·ḇō·’ū mā·rā·ṯāh yā·ḵə·lū wə·lō liš·tōṯ ma·yim mim·mā·rāh kî hêm mā·rîm ‘al- kên qā·rā- šə·māh mā·rāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-came Marah-ward, and-not they-were-able to-drink water from-Marah, for bitter they [were]; upon so one-called its-name Marah.
Where the English smooths the original
“Marah” means “bitterness” both in Hebrew and in Arabic. It appears to be a form of the root which we find also in mare and amarus.
After great moments and high triumphs in life comes Marah. Marah was just before Elim-the alternation, how blessed!
it need hardly be said that there is no etym. connexion between Hawwárah [said by Palmer to mean a small pool of undrinkable water ] and MarahOn the disputed identification of Marah with the well of Howarah.
God can make bitter to us that from which we promise ourselves most, and often does so in the wilderness of this world, that our wants, and disappointments in the creature, may drive us to the Creator, in whose favour alone true comfort is to be had.Henry's note covers the whole pericope (15:22–27); the comment on bitterness is placed here.
24So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hā·‘ām way·yil·lō·nū ‘al- mō·šeh lê·mōr mah- niš·teh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-grumbled the-people against Moses, saying, What shall-we-drink?
Where the English smooths the original
"Murmuring" was the common mode in which they vented their spleen, when anything went ill with them; and as Moses had persuaded them to quit Egypt, the murmuring was chiefly against him. The men who serve a nation best are during their lifetime least appreciated.
what shall we drink? what shall we do for drink? where can we drink? this water is not drinkable, and, unless we have something to drink, we, and our wives, and children, and servants, and cattle, must all perish.
Even true believers, in seasons of sharp trial, will be tempted to fret, distrust, and murmur. But in every trial we should cast our care upon the Lord, and pour out our hearts before him.From Henry's note on the whole pericope (15:22–27).
25And Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log. And when he cast it into the waters, they were sweetened. There the LORD made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He tested them,
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yiṣ·‘aq ’el- Yah·weh Yah·weh way·yō·w·rê·hū ‘êṣ way·yaš·lêḵ ’el- ham·ma·yim ham·mā·yim way·yim·tə·qū šām śām lōw ḥōq ū·miš·pāṭ wə·šām nis·sā·hū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-cried-out unto Yahweh, and-Yahweh showed-him a-tree, and-he-cast [it] into the-waters and-they-were-sweetened; there he-set for-it a-statute and-an-ordinance, and-there he-tested it.
Where the English smooths the original
it seems perfectly evident that this effect must have been miraculous, and that the tree was only a sign, and not the means of the cure, any more than the brazen serpent in another case.
As in so many other instances, God seems to have made use of nature, as far as nature could go, and then to have superadded His own omnipotent energy in order to produce the required effect. (Compare our blessed Lord’s method in working His miracles.)
it would be much more natural to suppose that there was an allusion to the tree of life, especially if we compare Genesis 2:9 and Genesis 3:22 with Revelation 22:2 , "the leaves of the tree of life were for the healing of the nations," though we cannot regard this reference as established.K&D weighs, then withholds, the tree-of-life reading — a model of restraint.
the sweetening was not dependent upon the nature or quality of the tree, but the power of God (compare Joh 9:6). And hence the "statute and ordinance" that followed, which would have been singularly inopportune if no miracle had been wrought.
The waters were made sweet, not so much by any virtue in that tree, as by the power of God, who used this rather as a sign to the Israelites, than as an instrument to himself in this work.Poole's crisp statement of the sign-not-means reading the older expositors hold in common.
26saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yō·mer ’im- šā·mō·w·a‘ tiš·ma‘ lə·qō·wl Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā ta·‘ă·śeh wə·hay·yā·šār bə·‘ê·nāw wə·ha·’ă·zan·tā lə·miṣ·wō·ṯāw wə·šā·mar·tā kāl- ḥuq·qāw lō- śam·tî ‘ā·le·ḵā kāl- ham·ma·ḥă·lāh ’ă·šer- ’ā·śîm ḇə·miṣ·ra·yim kî ’ă·nî Yah·weh rō·p̄ə·’e·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-said, If hearing you-will-hear to-the-voice-of Yahweh your-God, and-the-right in-his-eyes you-will-do, and-you-give-ear to-his-commands and-keep all his-statutes — not any-of-the-disease which I-set on-Egypt will-I-set on-you; for I [am] Yahweh your-healer.
Where the English smooths the original
I will put none of these diseases upon thee — Either such preternatural plagues as God had inflicted on the Egyptians, or the diseases which were peculiar to Egypt, and most frequent in that country, such as the leprosy and other cutaneous diseases.
That healeth thee; or, thy physician , for all thy maladies both of soul and body.
that healeth thee ] Cf. Psalm 103:3 ; also ch. Exodus 23:25 . The thought seems to be suggested by the incident of v. 25a: unwholesome or bitter water that has been made sweet is sometimes spoken of as ‘healed’ ( 2 Kings 2:21-22 , Ezekiel 47:8 ).
for I am the Lord that healeth thee; both in body and soul; in body, by preserving from diseases, and by curing them when afflicted with them; and in soul, by pardoning their iniquities, which, in Scripture, is sometimes signified by healing, see Psalm 103:3 .Gill reads the Healer-Name of soul as well as body, grounding the Psalm 103:3 resonance in a sourced voice.
27Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there by the waters.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yā·ḇō·’ū ’ê·li·māh wə·šām šə·têm ‘eś·rêh ‘ê·nōṯ ma·yim wə·šiḇ·‘îm tə·mā·rîm way·ya·ḥă·nū- šām ‘al- ham·mā·yim
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-came Elim-ward, and-there [were] twelve springs of-water and-seventy palm-trees; and-they-encamped there by the-waters.
Where the English smooths the original
One fact alone is beyond all doubt, namely, that at Elim, this lovely oasis in the barren desert, Israel was to learn how the Lord could make His people lie down in the green pastures, and lead them beside still waters, even in the barren desert of this life ( Psalm 23:2 ).
Twelve wells of water — One for each tribe, and the seventy palm-trees affording a cooling shade.
Twelve wells - Read springs; the Hebrew denotes natural sources. These springs may have been perennial when a richer vegetation clothed the adjacent heights.
the twelve fountains of water may denote the abundance of grace in Christ, in whom are the wells of salvation, and the sufficiency of it for all his peopleGill's evangelical (figural) reading of the numbers, offered alongside the literal.
The palm is called "the tree of the desert," as its presence is always a sign of water.
Palm trees were both pleasant for their shade, and refreshing for their sweet fruit. Thus the Israelites are obliged and encouraged to the obedience commanded, by being put into better circumstances than they were under in their last station.Poole ties Elim's comfort back to the covenant call of v. 26 — rest as encouragement to obedience.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens on the far side of triumph. The Song of the Sea has just been sung; the next sentence has Moses making the people break camp (נָסַע, nâsaʻ, the tent-pin verb) and march into the waterless wilderness of Shur. Benson states the lesson plainly and it governs everything that follows: “deliverances, however great, do not exempt from future difficulties and trials.” Three days — the Hebrew שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים — separate the high triumph from the first crisis, and K&D, quoting Luther, names the failure that ripens in that gap: “when the supply fails, our faith is soon gone.” The geography is real (Barnes measures it at thirty-three miles of “sand, or rough gravel”), but the geography is doing theological work: the Sea is behind, and there is no water ahead.
They reach water and cannot drink it. The verse names the place out of its own quality — מָרָה (Mârâh) because the waters are מָרִים (mārîm, bitter) — a pun Ellicott traces past Hebrew into the Latin mare and amarus. Maclaren reads the place within the rhythm of a life of faith: “After great moments and high triumphs in life comes Marah. Marah was just before Elim-the alternation, how blessed!” Then the people's response: לוּן (lûn) in the Nifal — the wilderness-word for murmuring, a settled complaint, not a passing word. The Pulpit Commentary catches the bitterness aimed at the leader: “The men who serve a nation best are during their lifetime least appreciated.” Henry's diagnosis of the heart stands over the whole scene: even true believers “in seasons of sharp trial, will be tempted to fret, distrust, and murmur.”
The hinge of the unit. Where the people murmured, Moses shrieked — צָעַק (tsâʻaq), the cry of extremity — and the divine name is written twice over in answer: Yahweh who hears, Yahweh who shows. The means is a עֵץ (ʻêts), a tree or wood, cast in; the waters וַיִּמְתְּקוּ (were sweetened, the rare verb mâthaq). The expositors are careful here, and so should we be: JFB holds that “the sweetening was not dependent upon the nature or quality of the tree, but the power of God”, and Benson insists the tree “was only a sign, and not the means of the cure, any more than the brazen serpent”. K&D even weighs whether the wood alludes to the tree of life, comparing Genesis 2:9 with Revelation 22:2 — and then withholds the claim: “we cannot regard this reference as established.” That restraint is the model. Two abiding things are “set” there: a חֹק and מִשְׁפָּט (statute and ordinance), and a נָסָה (test) — the same verb that names the binding of Isaac (Genesis 22:1). Marah is a proving-ground, and the proving is the point.
The test resolves into a covenant and a Name. The protasis is an emphatic Hebrew doubling — שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמַע, “if hearing you will hear” — and the apodosis is a promise built on a rare word: God will not set on Israel הַמַּחֲלָה (the sickness) He set on Egypt. The verse ends in self-disclosure: רֹפְאֶךָ, Yahweh-your-Healer. Poole reaches for the whole of it — God as “thy physician , for all thy maladies both of soul and body” — and the Cambridge editors, with characteristic care, tie the title back to the miracle just told: the word for heal (רָפָא) is the very word used elsewhere for healing bitter water (2 Kings 2:21–22). The God who healed the spring names Himself the Healer of the people who drank it.
The unit that began with no water ends with water in abundance. Elim has twelve עֵינֹת (springs — Barnes: “Read springs; the Hebrew denotes natural sources”) and seventy תְּמָרִים (palm-trees), and they חָנָה (encamp) by the waters. The numbers drew ancient readers irresistibly: Benson sees the twelve wells “One for each tribe” and the seventy palms “affording a cooling shade”; Gill the “abundance of grace in Christ, in whom are the wells of salvation, and the sufficiency of it for all his people”. K&D, weighing and refusing to over-read (the elders far outnumbered seventy), still lets the place preach: at Elim Israel learned “how the Lord could make His people lie down in the green pastures, and lead them beside still waters, even in the barren desert of this life” (Psalm 23:2). Marah was just before Elim; the alternation, how blessed.
Read under the rule that Scripture alone is the final authority, this short passage is a self-interpreting parable of how God deals with His redeemed people — offered as a reading to be tested, not a verdict to be trusted. Redemption does not abolish the wilderness; it relocates it. Three days past the Red Sea there is no water, and the very deliverance that should have anchored faith is forgotten. The text is honest about the redeemed heart: it murmurs. The remedy is a cry, not a complaint. The same crisis produces two responses — the people's lûn (settled grumbling against the man) and Moses' tsâʻaq (a shriek to the LORD) — and only the second is met. God turns affliction itself into His standing ordinance. The bitter-made-sweet is called a statute and a right (v. 25): the way God dealt at Marah is the way He will always deal — bitterness met, tested, and healed. And He seals it with a Name. The God who healed the spring does not merely heal; He is יְהוָה רֹפְאֶךָ, the LORD your Healer. Note, finally, what the older expositors do with the tree: they refuse to make the wood the cause. The sign points beyond itself to the power of God — and several of them (Henry, Maclaren) cannot help but see the Cross in it. That instinct is ancient; the discipline of not proving it from the bare word ʻêts is the lesson Marah itself teaches — test all things, hold fast what is good.
Marah and Elim are the same road: the God who sets the test is the God who sets the springs — and He has written His own name across the bitter cup, Yahweh-your-Healer.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The whole pericope is recapitulated in the priestly travel-log of Numbers 33 — the same break-camp verb (nâsaʻ), the same place-names Marah and Elim, the same record of twelve springs and seventy palms and the encamping by the waters. This is the strongest verbal anchor in the unit: Mârâh (H4785) occurs in only three verses of Scripture, ʼÊylim (H362) in only four, so the overlap is not coincidence of common words but a deliberate, shared record of one journey. Numbers 33:8 names the same desert as the wilderness of Etham, which Poole (here) and Gill harmonize with Shur.
Exodus 15:22 · Exodus 15:23 · Exodus 15:27 · Numbers 33:8 · Numbers 33:9
basis: rare shared lexemes from Verifier thread_candidates (computed over the unit): H4785 Mârâh (in 3 vv) and H362 ʼÊylim (in 4 vv) with Numbers 33:9, plus the common itinerary verb H5265 nâçaʻ (140 vv); Numbers 33:8 adds H4057 midbâr + H5265 nâçaʻ. Hebrew↔Hebrew; tier rests on the two genuinely rare place-name lexemes, not on the common terms. (The shared twelve-springs/seventy-palms/encamping wording is real but did not surface as shared Strong's in the Verifier run — reported here as narrative parallel, not as a computed lexeme basis.)
The closing verb of v. 25 — נָסָה (nâsâh, to test) — is the seed of a major canonical motif. JFB points the reader to the binding of Isaac (Genesis 22:1), where God tests Abraham with the identical verb. Deuteronomy then reads the entire forty-year wilderness through this lens, as a proving to know what was in Israel's heart (Deuteronomy 8:2, 16). The Pulpit Commentary draws the line from Marah onward, naming the whole sequence of tests and concluding that for forty years God led them through the wilderness “to prove them, to know what was in their heart” ( Deuteronomy 8 .). Marah is the opening move of that long proving. The shared lexeme H5254 nâsâh is real but moderately common (34 verses), so this is a confirmed thematic, not a quotation.
Exodus 15:25 · Genesis 22:1 · Deuteronomy 8:2 · Deuteronomy 8:16
basis: shared lexeme H5254 nâçâh (in 34 vv), Hebrew↔Hebrew, Verifier-confirmed; motif of God testing His people
The clause of v. 25b — שָׂם לוֹ חֹק וּמִשְׁפָּט (he set for it a statute and an ordinance) — recurs at Joshua 24:25, where Joshua at Shechem makes a covenant with the people and sets them a statute and an ordinance. The Cambridge editors flag the identity outright at this verse, cross-referencing Joshua 24:25 as having “the same words.” The Verifier confirms all three terms shared — H7760 sûm (set), H2706 chôq (statute), H4941 mishpâṭ (ordinance) — and while none is individually rare, the three-word collocation is a fixed covenant-formula: at Marah and at Shechem alike, God's dealing crystallizes into a binding rule for His people. K&D's reading sharpens it — at Marah the statute and right is not a verbal law but the act itself, bitter water made sweet as the standing rule of how God will provide.
Exodus 15:25 · Joshua 24:25
basis: Verifier-confirmed shared lexemes H7760 sûm (549 vv), H2706 chôq (125 vv), H4941 mishpâṭ (395 vv) — none individually rare, so not 'verbal', but the three-word collocation 'set… statute and ordinance' is a distinctive covenant-formula (Cambridge: 'the same words'). Hebrew↔Hebrew, structural pattern-overlap, no quotation claim.
The promise of v. 26 turns on the rare noun מַחֲלָה (maḥălāh, sickness) — only six occurrences — and on the title רָפָא (râphâʼ, Healer). Exodus 23:25 takes up the same rare disease-word in the same covenant logic: serve the LORD, and He will take sickness away from your midst. The healing-word reaches Psalm 103:3 (the LORD who heals all your diseases) — Gill makes the same cross-reference at this verse — and, as Cambridge notes, the very miracle of v. 25a, bitter water “healed,” recurs at Elisha's spring (2 Kings 2:21–22) and Ezekiel's river (Ezekiel 47:8). The tiering is honest about strength: only the Exodus 23:25 link carries a rare shared lexeme; the others are weaker.
Exodus 15:26 · Exodus 23:25 · Psalm 103:3 · 2 Kings 2:21
basis: tier earned by the Exodus 23:25 link only: rare shared lexeme H4245 machăleh (in 6 vv), Verifier-confirmed. The other refs are downgraded: Psalm 103:3 shares only H7495 râphâʼ (62 vv → thematic, Verifier-confirmed) and is cited by Gill/Cambridge; 2 Kings 2:21 shares only common terms H7993 shâlak + H4325 mayim + H8033 shâm (→ thematic 'healed-water' motif, Cambridge-sourced, not a verbal link). Hebrew↔Hebrew throughout.
The rare verb מָתַק (mâthaq, to be/grow sweet) — six occurrences across the Hebrew Bible — ties Marah's miracle to the wisdom literature's recurring image of bitterness and sweetness exchanged: the deceptive sweetness of stolen waters (Proverbs 9:17), sin that is sweet in the mouth yet bitter within (Job 20:12). At Marah the exchange runs the right way — God makes the bitter sweet. The lexeme is rare enough to register, but the contexts differ, so this is a thematic resonance rather than a quotation.
Exodus 15:25 · Proverbs 9:17 · Job 20:12
basis: rare shared lexeme H4985 mâthaq (in 6 vv), Hebrew↔Hebrew, from Verifier thread_candidates; shared bitter↔sweet motif, differing contexts
Verse 22 reaches back to the deliverance just sung: יַם־סוּף (yam-sûp̄, the Sea of Reeds), with the rare term סוּף (çûwph, only twenty-eight verses). Numbers 33:10 records Israel encamping again by that same sea after Elim, using the identical break-camp verb. The thread keeps the wilderness wandering tethered to the Exodus event that began it.
Exodus 15:22 · Numbers 33:10
basis: shared lexemes H5488 çûwph (28 vv) + H5265 nâçaʻ + H3220 yâm, Hebrew↔Hebrew, from Verifier thread_candidates; same itinerary, no quotation claim
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
From the earliest centuries, readers have seen in the עֵץ (ʻêts) cast into bitter Marah a figure of the Cross. Matthew Henry: “Some make this tree typical of the cross of Christ, which sweetens the bitter waters of affliction to all the faithful”. Maclaren presses it home — “The Cross is the true tree which, when ‘cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.’” The figural reading is ancient and widely held; it is, however, a typological move, not a verbal link — the New Testament never quotes Exodus 15:25 of the Cross, and the older expositors are right to ground the miracle in God's power, not the wood. We mark it for what it is: a venerable figure, to be weighed against the text.
Exodus 15:25
The Name disclosed at Marah — יְהוָה רֹפְאֶךָ, “I am the LORD who heals you” (v. 26) — finds its fullest expression in the One who declared, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Mark 2:17), and whose ministry was the healing of every disease. The older expositors already hear the title reaching past the body: Poole, that God is “thy physician , for all thy maladies both of soul and body”; Gill, that He heals “in soul, by pardoning their iniquities, which, in Scripture, is sometimes signified by healing” — the very fusion of forgiveness and healing the Gospels press home when the Physician of Mark 2 first says “your sins are forgiven.” This is a Hebrew title taken up by a Greek Gospel, so the connection is thematic-typological, never a verbal (shared-Strong's) link — a Greek text cannot share this passage's Hebrew Strong's number, and the Old Testament Healer-Name meets the New Testament Physician at the level of the divine character, not the lexeme.
Exodus 15:26 · Mark 2:17
Gill's evangelical reading sees in Elim's twelve עֵינֹת (springs) “the abundance of grace in Christ, in whom are the wells of salvation, and the sufficiency of it for all his people”, and in the seventy palms an anticipation of the seventy Christ sent out (Luke 10:1). It is a figural, novel-leaning reading — the numbers are suggestive, not asserted by the text — yet it rhymes with the deeper Johannine note: the One who turns water bitter-then-sweet is the One who gives “living water… springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Held as figure, not proof.
Exodus 15:27 · John 4:14
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). The named voices are quoted verbatim from public-domain works (Ellicott, Benson, Henry, Barnes, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Poole, Gill, Geneva, Cambridge, Pulpit, Maclaren, Keil & Delitzsch), attributed in place. Note that the standing identification of Marah with Ain Howarah and Elim with Wady Gharandel is geographically disputed: the Cambridge editors caution there is “no etym. connexion” between Hawwárah and Marah and that “it is impossible to speak with an certainty respecting the site of Marah” Voices that assert the identification confidently (Barnes, JFB, K&D) are reported alongside that caution; the synthesis under-claims accordingly. The transliterations, literal renderings, divergence notes, and all cross-reference reasoning are this tool's own work (⚙) — fallible; check against BDB/HALOT. Cross-references within the Hebrew canon carry Verifier-computed shared-Strong's bases, and each badge states honestly which lexemes earn its tier — where a parallel is real in narrative but did not surface as a shared Strong's number in the Verifier run (e.g. the twelve-springs/seventy-palms wording shared with Numbers 33), it is reported as parallel, not as a computed lexeme basis; the three Christ-readings are figural (two ancient/widely-held, one novel) and, where they cross into the New Testament, are tiered typological — never verbal — because a Greek text cannot share a Hebrew Strong's number with this passage. The tree-as-Cross figure is reported as the expositors offer it, with their own restraint (K&D's refusal to “regard this reference as established”) preserved.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)