🔼The name Maroth: Summary
- Meaning
- Bitternesses
- Etymology
- From a plural of a feminine derivation of the verb מרר (marar), to be bitter.
🔼The name Maroth in the Bible
The name Maroth occurs only once in the Bible, namely in Micah 1:12, where the prophet incorporates our name in an exercise that is clearly more concerned with wordplay than with geography. We don't really know whether Maroth was an actual city or an imagined one, or perhaps a proverbial embodiment of some principle or concept — like Nazareth, which in the first century was likewise either some insignificant hamlet that nobody else mentioned or else referred to the Diaspora, where millions made their home.
If Maroth is like Nazareth and both aren't physical cities but rather movements within which people lived, then it's part of the rebellion that's subliminally named from the waters of Marah to Paul's enigmatic Maranatha (1 Corinthians 16:22). As everybody knows, God expects his people to obey governments (Romans 13:1), but only so far and certainly not when these governments demand evil from their citizens, as is written: "You shall not follow the multitude in doing evil" (Exodus 23:2).
The difference between the unrighteous majority and the righteous minority is also the difference between the broad road that leads to destruction and the narrow gate that leads to life (Matthew 7:13). And it's also the same as the difference between the Platonic Republic and the Hebrew one — for more on the Hebrew Republic, see our article on Gog and Magog. For more on the Platonic Republic, see our article on πλατυς (platus), broad.
In his Jewish Wars, Josephus mentions a town called Μηρω (Mero) or Μηρωθ (Meroth) among the Galilean towns he had fortified (JW.2.20). This may be the same as the Maroth mentioned by Micah, and be either a town that nobody else mentions, or else refer to the resistance against Rome that, even after the defeat in 70 CE, continued strong albeit underground and was only referred to in code.
🔼Etymology of the name Maroth
The name Maroth (מרות) is an off-the-shelf feminine plural of the name Marah (מרה), or else of a word מרה (mara), meaning bitter or bitterness, from the verb מרר (marar), to be bitter:
מרר
The verb מרר (marar) means to be strong or bitter and can be used to describe tastes and smells, and hard or difficult situations. Most definitively, this word occurs in the test of adultery (Numbers 5:18-27), where a suspected woman is made to drink "bitter waters". If she was innocent, her husband's suspicions would be lifted, and she would conceive. This obviously ties into the nativity story.
Adjectives מר (mar) and מרירי (meriri) mean bitter. Nouns מרור (maror) and מרורה (merora) refer to any bitter thing, the former specifically to a certain bitter herb, and the latter to gall or poison.
Noun מררה (merera) also means gal. Nouns מרה (morra), מרה (mora), מרירות (merirut), ממר (memer), ממרור (mamror) and תמרור (tamrur) mean bitterness. The latter noun is spelled identical to the noun תמרור (tamrur), meaning marker or sign post, from the root תמר (tamar), meaning to be stiff or erect.
And speaking of such, the nouns מר (mor) and מור (mor) mean myrrh, a bitter and fragrant spice that was originally used to mark the tabernacle, but which came to be used to proclaim, olfactorily, the consummation of marriage. Hence, despite its links to words that mostly describe hardship, myrrh oil was known as the "oil of joy."
Verb מרה (mara) means to be contentious or rebellious, particularly against God. Noun מרי (meri) means rebellion.
The verb מור (mor) means to change. Perhaps the connection between the previous is coincidental but perhaps these words are indeed linked, as change is often reaction to bitterness or opposition. The noun תמורה (temura) means exchange.
🔼Maroth meaning
For a meaning of the name Maroth, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has Bitternesses, and NOBSE Study Bible Name List offers a rather elaborate Bitter Fountains (the fountains-part is not included in our name). BDB Theological Dictionary does not translate our name but does include a reference to the verb מרר (marar), to be bitter.