Numbers 5:21

21 (then the priest shall have the woman 1swear with the oath of the curse, and the priest shall say to the woman ), "the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people by the LORD'S making your thigh waste away and your abdomen swell;

Numbers 5:21 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 5:21

Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of
cursing
An oath which has a curse annexed to it, if taken falsely, which was to be pronounced upon the woman if guilty:

and the priest shall say unto the woman;
pronouncing the imprecation or curse upon her, she having taken the oath, should she be guilty of the crime suspected of, and she had swore concerning:

the Lord make thee a curse, and an oath among the people;
accursed according to the oath taken; or let this be the form of an oath and imprecation used by the people, saying, if I have done so and so, let me be accursed as such a woman, or let not that happen to me, as did to such a woman, so Jarchi:

when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell;
upon drinking the bitter waters; but though these things followed upon that, yet not as the natural cause of them, for they are ascribed to the Lord, and to a supernatural and miraculous power of his, which went along with the drinking of them.

Numbers 5:21 In-Context

19 'The priest shall have her take an oath and shall say to the woman, "If no man has lain with you and if you have not gone astray into uncleanness, being under the authority of your husband, be immune to this water of bitterness that brings a curse;
20 if you, however, have gone astray, being under the authority of your husband, and if you have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband has had intercourse with you"
21 (then the priest shall have the woman swear with the oath of the curse, and the priest shall say to the woman ), "the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people by the LORD'S making your thigh waste away and your abdomen swell;
22 and this water that brings a curse shall go into your stomach, and make your abdomen swell and your thigh waste away." And the woman shall say, "Amen. Amen."
23 'The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall wash them off into the water of bitterness.

Cross References 1

  • 1. Joshua 6:26; 1 Samuel 14:24; Nehemiah 10:29

Footnotes 1

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