Numbers 5:17

17 the priest will take holy waters in a clay vessel, and from the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle, and the priest will put [it] into the waters.

Numbers 5:17 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 5:17

And the priest shall take holy water
Out of the laver, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, and so Jarchi and Aben Ezra:

in an earthen vessel;
which held half a log, and that was but a quarter of a pint, or three egg shells; for no more was assigned, to a suspected woman, according to the Misnah ^F18. Some say only a fourth part: an earthen vessel was made use of, as everything vile and mean was in this affair:

and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest
shall take, and put [it] into the water;
first the water was put in, and then the dust, as Ben Gersom observes: there was a place a cubit square, where was a marble table, and a ring fixed in it, and when he lifted it up he took dust from under it, and put it so as it might be upon the top of the water ^F19; which was used, either, as the Targum of Jonathan suggests, because the end of all flesh is to come to dust, and so to put her in mind of her original and her end; and in like manner the earthen vessel might signify, that she would be broke to pieces as that vessel; as also it might direct her thoughts to the tempter, by the influence of whose temptation she had been drawn into this sin, dust being the serpent's food; and this being taken off the floor of the tabernacle, might add to the veneration of it, and make it more solemn and awful to drink of it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 Sotah, c. 2. sect. 2. Menachot, c. 9. sect. 3.
F19 Sotah, c. 2. sect. 2.

Numbers 5:17 In-Context

15 he will bring his wife to the priest. And he will bring her offering for her, one-tenth of an ephah of flour. He will not pour oil on it, and he will not put frankincense on it because [it is] a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembering, a reminding of guilt.

16 " 'Then the priest will bring her near and present her {before} Yahweh;

17 the priest will take holy waters in a clay vessel, and from the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle, and the priest will put [it] into the waters.

18 And the priest will present the woman {before} Yahweh, and he will uncover the head of the woman; he will then put in her hands the grain offering of the remembering--[which is] the grain offering of jealousy--and in the hand of the priest will be the waters of bitterness that brings a curse.

19 Then the priest will make her swear an oath, and he will say to the woman, "If a man has not slept with you, and if you have not had an impurity affair under your husband, go unpunished from the waters of bitterness that brings this curse.