Numbers 5:22

22 And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels to make thy belly to swell and thy thigh to rot." 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 if thou be defiled and some man have lain with thee besides thine husband"--

21 then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman -- "the LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot and thy belly to swell.

22 And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels to make thy belly to swell and thy thigh to rot." And the woman shall say, "Amen, amen."

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

24 and he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse, and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her and become bitter.