Marah (Bible)

On this account they murmured against Moses, who, under divine direction, cast into the fountain "a certain tree" which took away its bitterness, so that the people drank of it.

[5] However, according to textual scholars following the documentary hypothesis, the narrative concerning the bitter water comes from the Jahwist account, while the mention of law and testing is actually part of the Elohist account; textual scholars view this as the Elohist version of the naming of Massah, since the triconsonantal root of the Hebrew word used for tested here (נסה) is very similar to that for Massah (מסה), and the later explanation of Massah[6] connects the name to the same root (נסה).

[7] Some scholars have proposed to identify Marah as Bir el-Mura, based on the fact that the Arabic name is a cognate of Hebrew one.

[13] In the classic 1970 mystical film, El Topo, by Alejandro Jodorowsky, the protagonist and his female companion approach a river and the woman attempts to drink from it, only to find out that it is bitter in taste.

The protagonist then stirs the water with a tree branch, the woman drinks again and this time it is sweet.