Numbers 5:22

22 and this water that bringeth the curse shall enter into thy bowels, to make the belly to swell, and the thigh to shrink. And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.

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 thou hast gone astray to another instead of thy husband, and hast been defiled, and a man other than thy husband have lain with thee,

21 -- then the priest shall adjure the woman with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman: Jehovah make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when Jehovah doth make thy thigh to shrink, and thy belly to swell;

22 and this water that bringeth the curse shall enter into thy bowels, to make the belly to swell, and the thigh to shrink. And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.

23 And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and shall blot them out with the bitter water,

24 and he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that bringeth the curse, that the water that bringeth the curse may enter into her for bitterness.