Bible Strands
Exodus 15:25
And 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
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Study note
Setting — The narrator reports that the people have just grumbled over bitter water at Marah (v. 24); Moses cries out to the LORD, who shows him a tree to cast into the water.
The words — עֵץ ('etz) is rendered "log" in the BSB but literally means "a tree," the whole thing, not a fragment. The verb יַשְׁלֵךְ (yashlekh, "he threw") is a forceful, unceremonious casting, not a gentle placing.
The thread — The testing motif recurs in Deuteronomy 8:2 (forty years of wilderness as humbling), Psalms 66:10 (refined like silver), and Judges 3:1 (nations left to test Israel's war-readiness).
Why it lands — The provision and the test are presented as a single unit: the sweetened water is not the end but the entry point into a conditional covenant (v. 26). The reader is asked to notice that God's rescue and God's demand arrive together, not sequentially.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.
- Psalms 66:10 For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us like silver.
- Judges 3:1 These are the nations that the LORD left to test all the Israelites who had not known any of the wars in Canaan,
- Judges 2:22 In this way I will test whether Israel will keep the way of the LORD by walking in it as their fathers did.”
- Judges 3:4 These nations were left to test the Israelites, to find out whether they would keep the commandments of the LORD, which He had given their fathers through Moses.
- Exodus 16:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test whether or not they will follow My instructions.
- Deuteronomy 8:16 He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.
- 2 Kings 2:21 and Elisha went out to the spring, cast the salt into it, and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘I have healed this water. No longer will it cause death or unfruitfulness.’”
- 1 Peter 1:6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trials
- Psalms 50:15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”