Numbers 5:22

22 And may the water that brings these curses enter your stomach and make your womb discharge and make you miscarry." And the woman will say, "I agree, I agree."

Numbers 5:22 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 5:22

And this water that causeth the curse
Upon the drinking of which the curse follows, if guilty:

shall go into thy bowels;
and there operate and produce the above effects, which are repeated again to inject terror:

to make [thy] belly to swell, and [thy] thigh to rot;
here ends the form of the oath, which begins ( Numbers 5:19 ) ;

and the woman shall say, amen, amen;
so be it; let it be as pronounced, if I am guilty; which, as Aben Ezra observes, is repeated for the sake of confirmation; though the Jewish writers commonly understand it as respecting various things, the oath and the curse, the thing charged with, and the persons suspected of ^F24.

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 Misn. ib. sect. 5. Targum Jon. & Jerus. & Jarchi in loc.

Numbers 5:22 In-Context

20 But if you have had an affair while married to your husband, if you have defiled yourself, and a man other than your husband has had intercourse with you"—

21 then the priest must make the woman utter the curse and say to the woman, "May the LORD make you a curse and a harmful pledge among your people, when the LORD induces a miscarriage and your womb discharges.

22 And may the water that brings these curses enter your stomach and make your womb discharge and make you miscarry." And the woman will say, "I agree, I agree."

23 The priest will write these curses in the scroll and wipe them off into the water of bitterness.

24 Then he will make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse. And the water that brings the curse will enter her, causing bitterness.