Numbers 5:23

23 "Then the priest is to write these curses on a scroll and wash [them] off into the bitter water.

Numbers 5:23 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 5:23

And the priest shall write these curses in a book
The above curses imprecated on herself by an oath; the words and the letters of them were written at length, in a scroll of parchment; and, as some say also, her name, but not her double amen to them F25: and he shall blot [them] out with the bitter water:
wash them out with it, and into it, or scrape them off of the parchment into it.


FOOTNOTES:

F25 Misnah, ut supra, (Sotah, c. 2) sect. 3.

Numbers 5:23 In-Context

21 at this point the priest must make the woman take the oath with the sworn curse, and he is to say to her- 'May the Lord make you into an object of your people's cursing and swearing when He makes your thigh shrivel and your belly swell.
22 May this water that brings a curse enter your stomach, causing [your] belly to swell and [your] thigh to shrivel.' "And the woman must reply, 'Amen, Amen.'
23 "Then the priest is to write these curses on a scroll and wash [them] off into the bitter water.
24 He will require the woman to drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and it will enter her and cause bitter suffering.
25 The priest is to take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman's hand, wave the offering before the Lord, and bring it to the altar.
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