Numbers 5:11-31

C. THE ORDEAL OF JEALOUSY vv. 11-31
TEXT

Numbers 5:11. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 12. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him, 13. And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she is defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner; 14. And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled; or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled: 15. Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. 16. And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord: 17. And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water: 18. And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman's head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse: 19. And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse: 20. But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee besides thine husband: 21. Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; 22. And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot. And the woman shall say, Amen, amen. 23. And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water: 24. And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse; and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter. 25. Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman's hand, and shall wave the offering before the Lord, and offer it upon the altar: 26. And the priest shall take a handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water. 27. And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people. 28. And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. 29. This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled; 30. Or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law. 31. Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.

PARAPHRASE

Numbers 5:11. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 12. Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, -If any man's wife go aside, and commit a sin against him, and a man have intercourse with her, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected, she is defiled, although there is no witness against her and she has not been taken in the Acts 14. if a spirit of jealousy come upon him and he be jealous of his wife when she is defiled; or if a spirit of jealousy come upon him and he be jealous of his wife when she is not defiled, 15. then shall the man bring his wife to the priest, and he shall bring an offering for her, one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense on it, for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. 16. Then the priest shall bring her near and have her stand before the Lord; 17. and the priest shall take holy water in a clay pot, and he shall take of the dust which is on the floor of the tabernacle, and shall put it in the water. 18. The priest shall then have the woman stand before the Lord, and loosen the hair of her head, and put the memorial offering in her handsthat is, the grain offering of jealousy; and the priest shall have in his hand the water of bitterness which causes a curse. 19. And the priest shall have her take an oath, saying unto the woman, If no man has lain with you and if you have not gone aside to uncleanness with someone other than your husband, be immune to this bitter water which causes the curse; 20.

however, if you have gone aside to someone other than your husband, and if you are defiled and some man other than your husband has lain with you, 21. Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of the curse, and shall say to the woman, The Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people when He causes your thigh to waste away and your abdomen to swell; 22. and this water which causes the curse shall enter your bowels and make your abdomen to swell and your thigh to waste away. And the woman shall say, Let it be so; let it be so. 23. Then the priest shall write these curses on a scroll and wash them off with the bitter water; 24. and he shall make the woman drink the bitter water which causes the curse, so that the water which causes the curse shall enter into her and become bitter. 25. Then the priest shall take the meal offering of jealousy from the woman's hand, and wave the offering before the Lord and offer it upon the altar; 26. and a priest shall take a handful of the offering, of the memorial portion, and burn it on the altar, and later shall cause the woman to drink the water. 27. And when he has caused her to drink the water, it shall happen that if she is defiled, and has sinned against her husband, the water which causes a curse shall enter into her and become bitter, and her abdomen will swell and her thigh will waste away and she will become a curse among her people. 28. But if the woman is not defiled, and is clean, then she shall be free and conceive children. 29. This is the Law of Jealousies: when a wife goes aside to someone other than her husband, and is defiled;, 30. or when the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he becomes jealous of his wife, he shall bring the woman before the Lord and the priest shall apply all this law unto her. 31. The man shall be without guilt of sin, but his wife shall bear her guilt.

COMMENTARY

Among all the sins which men commit, few or none are viewed with such loathing as that of adultery. Its consequences may spread in an ever-widening sphere, beginning with the offender and the offended, and including the immediate family, the close and more remote circle of friends, neighbors, and an almost infinite combination of possibilities of social, business, religious and community factors. No other single wrong is so disruptive of the basic unit of God's ordained social structure, the home.
Even when there is reasonable ground for suspicion of marital infidelity, the consequences may be profound. The case is well presented in KD, pp. 29, 30: As any suspicion cherished by a man against his wife, that she either is or has been guilty of adultery, whether well-founded or not, is sufficient to shake the marriage connection to its very roots, and to undermine, along with marriage, the foundation of the civil commonwealth, it was of the greatest importance to guard against this moral evil, which was so utterly irreconcilable with the holiness of the people of God, by appointing a process in harmony with the spirit of the theocratical law, and adapted to bring to light the guilt or innocence of any wife who had fallen into such suspicion, and at the same time to warn fickle wives against unfaithfulness.

The ordeal prescribed in this section was to be undergone where adultery was suspected, but could not be proved, for lack of witnesses. The penalty for demonstrable adultery was set (Leviticus 20:10). It is in no way directly related to this test. The wife is to come with her husband, bringing an offering of barley meal to the priest. She is then to be brought before the Lord as she subscribes to an oath, setting forth the conditions that if she is innocent no harm will come of the test; but if there is guilt upon her soul, she will suffer the extraordinary consequences of having her body swell and her thigh fall away. Josephus has suggested this is a form of dropsy. Michaelis proposes it to be dropsy of the ovary, in which a huge tumor may form in place of the ovarium, and swell to almost unbelievable size, causing dreadful emaciation. KD notes that The punishment was to answer exactly to the crime, and to fall upon those bodily organs which had been the instruments of the woman's sin, viz. the organs of child-bearing.

No little symbolistic value has been found in the ingredients of the test. KD has the holy water representing the righteousness and justice of God; the dust, taken from the sanctuary floor, signifies the curse of sin since dust was to be eaten by the serpent (Genesis 3:14).; the earthen vessel is used rather than one of copper because it is virtually worthless; loosening the woman's hair suggests the loss of the proper ornament of female morality and conjugal fidelity; she stands with the offering in her own hands, as a symbol of her conduct before God, while the priests, holding the trial water, represents God and divine judgment, pp. 31, 32. Such hypothetical speculation is interesting and, to some degree logical; but the Bible makes no such associations.

After the charges against the woman had been inscribed on a roll, the writing itself was washed off into the bitter water, to become the water of trial. Much is made of this in ICC and PC, since antecedents and similarities may be found in numerous ancient, pagan societies, and contemporarily in parts of Africa among semi-barbarous people. Indeed, among some Mohammedans, those who are ill swallow portions of the Koran in hopes of a cure. PC cites an incident in the middle ages when Archbishop Edmund Rich, later canonized, washed a crucifix in water, drank it, and cited the thought, Ye shall drink from the wells of salvation, p. 33. If one reckons without the power of a personal, righteous God, there is no difference between the superstitious practices of the pagan and the obedient response of believers in such a God. The Hebrews did not question either the method or the divine power behind the method of enforcing this test. In her response, Amen, amen, the wife placed herself under the strictures of the test. If guilty, she awaited a horrible consequence; if innocent, a welcome acquittal, and the ability to produce children, Numbers 5:28.

The concluding verses, Numbers 5:29-31, free the husband of any guilt in subjecting his wife to the law's ordeal. It is generally believed that the consequences of the ordeal, if negative, would be apparent within a brief time. Josephus makes it a maximum of ten months. If, in the meanwhile, she should bear a son, the fact is considered an exoneration. PC says it is unlikely the ordeal was ever actually used, since no guilty woman would dare subject herself to such a dreadful challenge, unless she had no fears of the actions of God. The same source asserts, with the Talmud as its authority, that the use of the law of jealousy ended forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, p. 41.

QUESTIONS AND RESEARCH ITEMS

106.

Compare the process of this testing by the Law of Jealousy with the law covering demonstrable adultery.

107.

The test of infidelity here has been called almost inhuman by today's standards. Discuss the point, showing problems which arise in a marriage afflicted by jealousy.

108.

List the possible symbolisms in the steps followed in the test.

109.

Could there be any danger in the wife's undergoing her ordeal if she is innocent of any wrongdoing?

110.

The test of jealousy has been compared to numerous paganistic rituals. What essential differences do you find between the two?

111.

What was the composition of holy water, and for what various purposes, other than this test, was it used?

Show the role of God throughout such a testing period.