and the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife and she is defiled; or if the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife and she isn’t defiled; then the man shall bring his wife to the priest, and shall bring her offering for her: one tenth of an ephah of barley meal. He shall pour no oil on it, nor put frankincense on it, for it is a meal offering of jealousy, a meal offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to memory. The priest shall bring her near, and set her before Yahweh. The priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and the priest shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. The priest shall set the woman before Yahweh, and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose, and put the meal offering of memorial in her hands, which is the meal offering of jealousy. The priest shall have in his hand the water of bitterness that brings a curse. The priest shall cause her to take an oath and shall tell the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you haven’t gone aside to uncleanness, being under your husband’s authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings a curse. But if you have gone astray, being under your husband’s authority, and if you are defiled, and some man has lain with you besides your husband—” then the priest shall cause the woman to swear with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall tell the woman, “May Yahweh make you a curse and an oath among your people, when Yahweh allows your thigh to fall away, and your body to swell; and this water that brings a curse will go into your bowels, and make your body swell, and your thigh fall away.” The woman shall say, “Amen, Amen.”
“ ‘The priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall wipe them into the water of bitterness. He shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that causes the curse; and the water that causes the curse shall enter into her and become bitter. The priest shall take the meal offering of jealousy out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the meal offering before Yahweh, and bring it to the altar. The priest shall take a handful of the meal offering, as its memorial portion, and burn it on the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water. When he has made her drink the water, then it shall happen, if she is defiled and has committed a trespass against her husband, that the water that causes the curse will enter into her and become bitter, and her body will swell, and her thigh will fall away; and the woman will be a curse among her people. If the woman isn’t defiled, but is clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive offspring.
“ ‘This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, being under her husband, goes astray, and is defiled, or when the spirit of jealousy comes on a man, and he is jealous of his wife; then he shall set the woman before Yahweh, and the priest shall execute on her all this law. The man shall be free from iniquity, and that woman shall bear her iniquity.’ ”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 26, 28, 31 Hebrew, If the spirit of jealousy come upon him.
Hebrew, If the spirit of jealousy come upon him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 27 Num 5:14 And the spirit of jealousy come upon…
Num 5:14 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:
Ver. 14. And the spirit of jealousy come upon him.] In the baths at Upper Baden in Helvetia, cernunt viri uxores tractari, cernunt cum alienis loqui, et quidem solam cum solo, saith Munster, and yet are not jealous. But the Italians are so jealous, that how many husbands, so many jailers. And the Turks as far exceed the Italians herein, as the Italians do us. Therefore their women go muffled, all but the eyes: nor are they suffered to go to church, or so much as look out at their own windows. {a} In Barbary it is death for any man to see one of the Shereef’s concubines: and for them too, if, when they see a man, though but through a casement, they do not suddenly scream out.
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{a} Blunt’s Voyage into Levant.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 31 The spirit of jealousy, i.e. a strong opinion or…
The spirit of jealousy, i.e. a strong opinion or suggestion or inward motion of that kind, whether from a good or evil spirit. Thus we read of the spirit of wisdom, Isa 11:2, of perverseness, Isa 19:14, of fornication, Hos 4:12, of fear, 2Ti 1:7, of slumber, Rom 11:8.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv14–31 And the spirit of jealousy come upon him,.... A…
And the spirit of jealousy come upon him,.... A thought rises up in his mind, a strong suspicion works in him, which he cannot resist and throw off, but it remains with him, and makes him very uneasy, that his wife has defiled his bed, as it follows:
and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled; that his wife is defiled by a man; and which is the real case, as it afterwards appears, though at present he is not certain, only has a suspicion of it:
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or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled; it is mere jealousy and suspicion, without any foundation for it; and his wife proved a chaste and virtuous woman; yet be it which it would, he being jealous, the following law was to take place, and the following rules to be observed.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 28, 31 The man shall bring her to the priest -…
The man shall bring her to the priest - Who first strove to persuade her to own the truth. If she did, she was not put to death, (which must have been, if it had been proved against her) but only was divorced and lost her dowry. Her offering - By way of solemn appeal to God, whom hereby she desired to judge between her and her husband, and by way of atonement to appease God, who had for her sins stirred up her husband against her. He shall pour no oil - Both because it was a kind of sin-offering, from which these were excluded, and because she came thither as a delinquent, or suspected of delinquency, unpleasing both to God and men; as one that wanted that grace and amiableness and joy which oil signified, and that acceptance with God which frankincense denoted, Psalm 1xli, 2. Bringing iniquity to remembrance - Both to God before whom she appeared as a sinner, and to her own conscience, if she was guilty; and, if she were not guilty of this, yet it reminded her of her other sins, for which this might be a punishment.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv14, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 29, 31 Verse 14. The spirit of jealousy] רוח קנאה ruach…
Verse 14. The spirit of jealousy] רוח קנאה ruach kinah, either a supernatural diabolic influence, exciting him to jealousy, or the passion or affection of jealousy, for so the words may be understood.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv15, 27, 28, 29, 31 Num 5:15. The man shall bring her to the…
Num 5:15. The man shall bring her to the priest — With the witnesses that could prove the ground of his suspicions, and desire she might be put upon her trial. The Jews say, the priest was first to endeavour to persuade her to confess the truth, saying, to this purpose, “Dear daughter, perhaps thou wast overtaken by drinking wine, or wast carried away by the heat of youth, or the examples of ill neighbours; come, confess the truth, for the sake of his great name, which is described in this most sacred ceremony; and do not let it be blotted out with the bitter water.” If she confessed, saying, I am defiled, she was not put to death, but was divorced, and lost her dowry; if she said, I am pure, then they proceeded.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31 The spirit of jealousy, &c. This ordinance was designed…
The spirit of jealousy, &c. This ordinance was designed to clear the innocent, and to prevent jealous husbands from doing mischief to their wives: as likewise to give all a horror of adultery, by punishing it in so remarkable a manner. (Challoner) --- The spirit of jealousy, of fear, &c., denotes those passions of the soul. This very remarkable law of Moses suited the genius of his people, (Calmet) and tended greatly to restrain the infidelity of the married couple, and the fury of suspicious husbands. (Theodoret, q. 10.) God was pleased, by a continual miracle, to manifest the truth, on this occasion, provided the husband were not also guilty: for in that case, the Rabbins assert, the waters had no effect. They relate many particularities, which seem contrary to Philo and Josephus, who inform us that the trial was still made in their time, though the former writers pretend that it was disused, on account of the many adulteries which were committed, in the age preceding the destruction of the temple by Titus. They say that the person who had committed the crime with the woman, died at the same time that the bitter waters put an end to her existence. When the suspected person was brought before the Sanhedrim, they tried, by all means, to extort a confession from her. But if she persisted in maintaining her innocence, they made her stand in black, before the eastern gate of the court, denouncing to her what she had to expect. If she answered Amen, the priest wrote the imprecations (ver. 19-22,) on vellum, with ink, which had no mixture of vitriol in it; and taking water from the laver, and dust from the court, with something bitter, like wormwood, effaced the writing in a new earthen vessel; while another priest tore her garments as far as the breast, and tied them up with an Egyptian cord, to remind her of the miracles wrought by God. If she confessed the crime before the writing was effaced, she was to be repudiated, without any dowry; or, if she kept company with a suspected person, contrary to her husband’s admonition, after she had come off victorious from drinking the bitter waters, she was subjected to the same punishment, and could not demand to be admitted any more to make the miraculous experiment. See Selden, Uxor. iii. 13.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv17, 21, 22, 23, 29 the priest shall take holy water--Water from the laver,…
the priest shall take holy water--Water from the laver, which was to be mixed with dust--an emblem of vileness and misery (Gen 3:14; Psa 22:15).
in an earthen vessel--This fragile ware was chosen because, after being used, it was broken in pieces (Lev 6:28; Lev 11:33). All the circumstances of this awful ceremony--her being placed with her face toward the ark--her uncovered head, a sign of her being deprived of the protection of her husband (Co1 11:7) --the bitter potion being put into her hands preparatory to an appeal to God--the solemn adjuration of the priest (Num 5:19-22), all were calculated in no common degree to excite and appall the imagination of a person conscious of guilt.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 31 15. Bring his wife unto the priest — The…
15. Bring his wife unto the priest — The outline of this ritual consisted in the presentation of the suspected wife by her husband to the priest with an offering to bring iniquity “to remembrance.” The essential part was the oath, in which she solemnly protested her innocence, the water being merely the visible channel through which the supernatural curse was to operate, as the clay put upon the eyes of the blind was a visible link between the divine omnipotence and the opening of the eyes. God was invoked to pronounce sentence, and his presence was recognised by throwing a handful of the barley meal on the blazing altar, the woman meanwhile standing before the Lord with the offering in her hand. The priest stood holding the earthen vessel of holy water, mixed with dust taken from the floor of the sanctuary, declaring the woman free from evil consequences if innocent, and dooming her to terrible sufferings if guilty. The curses written in a book were then washed off into the water; the woman drank it, and uttered “Amen, amen,” to the curses falling upon her head from the lips of the priest.
Her offering — None were allowed to approach the sanctuary empty handed. Exo_23:15. The Hebrew word for offering — corban — is from the verb to approach, implying that an offering of access or introduction must be made to Jehovah, in accordance with Oriental usage when an inferior comes into the presence of a superior.
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The tenth of an ephah of barley meal — The ephah, according to Josephus, was about eight and a half gallons; but the Rabbies say that it was about half that quantity. The barley meal, without oil or frankincense, was a coarse and cheap offering, symbolizing the gross animal character and vileness of the crime in question, and the sad state of the family offering it. It was not an atoning sacrifice, but a memorial solemnly referring the decision to Jehovah. This meat offering, made without the accompaniment of burnt offerings and peace offerings, proves its independence, which has been denied by Bahr and Kurtz on insufficient grounds. No oil was to be poured upon it, probably because the oil is not only the emblem of joy, but in its threefold use for light, food, and healing, symbolizes the illumination, the spiritual sustenance, and restoring efficacy of the Holy Ghost, whose inner abode presupposes the sincerity of the worshipper, the very point in question in the case of the suspected wife.
Nor… frankincense — Since this was the emblem of acceptable prayer, it could not be offered by her who might be regarding iniquity in her heart, in which case prayer, instead of being a savour of sweet smell, is a stench in the nostrils of Jehovah.
Bringing iniquity to remembrance — This was designed not only to quicken the slumbering conscience of the accused, but to exhibit to all spectators the turpitude of this great sin. In an anthropomorphic view of God, it was an appeal to the memory of God to remind him of his promise to interpose for the decision of this trial.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 31 15. the tenth part of an ephah] A little…
15. the tenth part of an ephah] A little under 7 pints. An ephah was a dry measure equivalent to the liquid measure bath; both were equal to 1/10th homer. See Isa_5:10.
barley meal] The coarsest farinaceous food, ordinarily used by the poorer classes (Jdg_7:13, Joh_6:9; Joh_6:13), and given to animals (1Ki_4:28). It would frequently be used as an offering in early days, but the mention of it is unique in P , which probably shews that it was an integral part of a primitive ceremony on which P’s account is based. Elsewhere in P ‘fine meal’ is always prescribed.
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he shall pour no oil upon it &c.] Perhaps because symbols of joy and festivity were excluded by the grievous nature of the woman’s alleged crime. Oil and frankincense were also forbidden in the case of a poor man’s sin-offering (Lev_5:11).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29 And she be not defiled. As far as the…
And she be not defiled. As far as the mischief here dealt with was concerned, it was almost equally great whether the woman was guilty or not.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv15, 16, 18, 20, 23, 24, 27, 29, 31 a tenth
a tenth
This is one part out of ten equal parts. (See: Fractions)
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a tenth of an ephah
This can be written in modern measurements. AT: "a tenth of an ephah (which is about 2 liters)" or "2 liters" (See: Biblical Volume)
a grain offering of jealousy
"a grain offering for jealousy"
a reminder of the iniquity
A "reminder" is something that shows evidence that something had occurred that required justice. In this case, he made the offering to determine whether his wife had committed adultery or not.
translationWords
priest
drink offering
tenth
barley
oil
frankincense
grain offering
sin
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv14, 17, 21, 23, 29 5:14-15 The husband presented his case before the priest,…
5:14-15 The husband presented his case before the priest, and the “ritual law for dealing with suspicion” (5:29) took the husband’s jealousy and suspicion to a higher court.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.