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,
The Lord showed him a tree. Some travelers have pronounced this to be the elvah of the Arabs-a shrub in form and flower resembling our hawthorn; others, the berries of the Ghurkhud Peganum rectusum of Forskal, 'Floriculture of Egypt') - a bush found growing around all brackish fountains. But neither of these shrubs are known by the natives to possess such natural virtues. It is far more likely that God miraculously endowed some tree with the property of purifying the bitter water х `eets (H6086), a tree or wood of any species employed as the medium]; but the sweetening was not dependent upon the nature or quality of the tree, but the power of God (cf. Job 9:6). And hence, the "statute and ordinance" that followed, which would have been singularly inopportune if no miracle had been performed.
There he made for them a statute and an ordinance. Several Jewish Rabbis, followed by Paley and a few Christian writers, consider that this was the first occasion for instituting the Sabbath and promulgating the commandment to honour father and mother-their moral law consisting hitherto only of the seven precepts of Noah. But there is no reason to believe that any particular law or statute was enacted there (the specification of moral and religious duties being reserved for another time and place); but the general principle or rule of the divine procedure was explained to them, as it had been to Abraham (Genesis 17:1). God having performed His part of the covenant made with the patriarch, by bringing his posterity out of Egypt, and engaging still to preserve and deliver them, now informs them that He requires a fulfillment of their part of the covenant-its privileges offered by Him being suspended on the condition of their obedience. That this general precept was meant by "the statute and ordinance," is evident from the tenor of the verse that follows.
Proved them - or tried them. God now brought the Israelites into circumstances which would put their faith and obedience to the test (cf. Genesis 22:1).