Numbers 5:28

28 'But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will then be free and conceive children.

Numbers 5:28 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 5:28

And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean
If she is not guilty of adultery, but pure from that sin:

then she shall be free;
from the effects of the bitter water; they shall have no such influence upon her, but she shall be as soured and healthful as ever; nay, the Jewish writers say more so, that if she had any sickness or disease upon her she would now be freed from it F14; the Targum of Jonathan has it, her splendour shall shine, the brightness and beauty of her countenance:

and shall conceive seed;
a man child, as the same Targum; and the Jewish writers say, if she was barren before, now she would be fruitful; but no more is meant by it than that her husband should receive her gladly, and she should live comfortably with him hereafter, and the blessing of God would be upon her, which would still be a confirmation of her chastity.


FOOTNOTES:

F14 Maimon. Hilchot Sotah, c. 3. sect. 22.

Numbers 5:28 In-Context

26 and the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial offering and offer it up in smoke on the altar, and afterward he shall make the woman drink the water.
27 'When he has made her drink the water, then it shall come about, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness, and her abdomen will swell and her thigh will waste away, and the woman will become a curse among her people.
28 'But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will then be free and conceive children.
29 'This is the law of jealousy: when a wife, being under the authority of her husband, goes astray and defiles herself,
30 or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife, he shall then make the woman stand before the LORD , and the priest shall apply all this law to her.

Footnotes 1

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