Numbers 5:22

22 This water that brings a curse will go inside you and make your body unable to give birth to another baby." "'The woman must say, "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 been unfaithful to your husband and have had sexual relations with a man besides him" --

21 the priest will then put on her the curse that the oath will bring -- "the Lord will make the people curse and reject you. He will make your stomach get big, and he will make your body unable to give birth to another baby.

22 This water that brings a curse will go inside you and make your body unable to give birth to another baby." "'The woman must say, "I agree."

23 "'The priest should write these curses on a scroll, wash the words off into the bitter water,

24 and make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse. If she is guilty, the water will make her sick.