Numbers 5:23

23 And the priest shall write these curses on a scroll and wash them off into the bitter water.

Numbers 5:23 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 5:23

And the priest shall write these curses in a book
The above curses imprecated on herself by an oath; the words and the letters of them were written at length, in a scroll of parchment; and, as some say also, her name, but not her double amen to them ^F25: and he shall blot [them] out with the bitter water:
wash them out with it, and into it, or scrape them off of the parchment into it.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F25 Misnah, ut supra, (Sotah, c. 2) sect. 3.

Numbers 5:23 In-Context

21 and the priest shall have the woman swear under the oath of the curse—‘then may the LORD make you an attested curse among your people by making your thigh shrivel and your belly swell.

22 May this water that brings a curse enter your stomach and cause your belly to swell and your thigh to shrivel.’ Then the woman is to say, ‘Amen, Amen.’

23 And the priest shall write these curses on a scroll and wash them off into the bitter water.

24 He is to have the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and it will enter her and may cause her bitter suffering.

25 The priest shall take from her hand the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the LORD, and bring it to the altar.