Numbers 5:28

28 And if the woman is not defiled, and she [is] pure, she will go unpunished and be able to conceive children.

Numbers 5:28 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 5:28

And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean
If she is not guilty of adultery, but pure from that sin:

then she shall be free;
from the effects of the bitter water; they shall have no such influence upon her, but she shall be as soured and healthful as ever; nay, the Jewish writers say more so, that if she had any sickness or disease upon her she would now be freed from it ^F14; the Targum of Jonathan has it, her splendour shall shine, the brightness and beauty of her countenance:

and shall conceive seed;
a man child, as the same Targum; and the Jewish writers say, if she was barren before, now she would be fruitful; but no more is meant by it than that her husband should receive her gladly, and she should live comfortably with him hereafter, and the blessing of God would be upon her, which would still be a confirmation of her chastity.

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FOOTNOTES:

F14 Maimon. Hilchot Sotah, c. 3. sect. 22.

Numbers 5:28 In-Context

26 the priest will grasp her memorial offering from the grain offering, and he will turn [it] into smoke [on] the altar, and afterward he will make the woman drink the waters.

27 When he has made her drink the waters, it will come about, if she has defiled herself and acted unfaithfully to her husband and the waters of bitterness that bring a curse go into her and her stomach swells and her hip falls away, the woman will be as a curse in the midst of her people.

28 And if the woman is not defiled, and she [is] pure, she will go unpunished and be able to conceive children.

29 " 'This [is] the regulation of jealousy, when a woman has an affair under her husband and she is defiled,

30 or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous [of] his wife, he will present the woman {before Yahweh},and the priest will do to her all of this law.