Numbers 5:22

22 (yea, let) these cursed waters enter into thy womb, and while thy womb swelleth, thine hip wax rotten. And the woman shall answer, 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.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F24 Misn. ib. sect. 5. Targum Jon. & Jerus. & Jarchi in loc.

Numbers 5:22 In-Context

20 else if thou bowedest away from thine husband, and art defouled, and hast lain with another man, (but if thou hast turned away from thy husband, and art defiled, and hast lain with another man,)

21 thou shalt be subject to these cursings; the Lord give thee into cursing, and into ensample of all men in his people; the Lord make thine hip to wax rotten, and thy womb (to) swell, and be it broken; (then thou shalt be subject to these curses; yea, let the Lord make thee a curse, and an example to all among his people; and may the Lord make thy hip to grow rotten, and thy womb to swell, and let it be broken;)

22 (yea, let) these cursed waters enter into thy womb, and while thy womb swelleth, thine hip wax rotten. And the woman shall answer, Amen! amen!

23 And the priest shall write these curses in a little book, and he shall do away those curses with the bitterest waters (and then he shall wash them off into this most bitter water),

24 into which he gathered (those) curses, and he shall give to her the waters to drink. And when she hath drunk those waters, (into which he shall gather together these curses, and then he shall give her this water to drink. And when she hath drunk the water,)