Numbers 5:29-31

This Is the Law of Jealousy For When a Woman Goes Aside and Commits Adultery, or Is Suspected of It, Freeing Her Husband From Any Guilt in Regard to It (Numbers 5:29)

Numbers 5:29

‘This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, being under her husband, goes aside, and is defiled, or when the spirit of jealousy comes on a man, and he is jealous of his wife, then shall he set the woman before Yahweh, and the priest shall execute on her all this law.'

What has been said is now summarised. It has described the procedure that follows when a woman is thought to have been unfaithful to the husband. Or when the husband has good cause to think that she has been unfaithful and is ‘jealous' for the holiness of Yahweh. Then she would be set before Yahweh and the priest would carry out this instruction to the full. It should be noted that this law was actually on the side of the woman. Strictly speaking no harm should come to her through it if she was innocent.

Numbers 5:31

‘And the man shall be free from iniquity, and that woman shall bear her iniquity.'

We must stress again that the idea is not simply of a jealous husband. The idea is of a husband genuinely concerned lest the camp had been defiled and Yahweh grieved. Thus once it was over the man would be free from the iniquity of not having done anything about hidden adultery (for if she was guilty his whole house would have been defiled by her defilement and he would have done his duty). And the woman would ‘bear her iniquity'. Either she would be cleared and have nothing to bear, or she would bear it by being condemned by Yahweh in the way described above.

The message for us is clear. It brings home how seriously God views such behaviour. This was one sin that God would not allow to simply lie down and remain hidden. It stresses that for a Christian there can be no sex outside of marriage. Such is firmly forbidden. Nor can there be divorce, unless the other partner has already committed adultery. As with this ceremony we must remember that what we do we do in the presence of God, and God is deeply concerned about it.