Numbers 5:23

23 "The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash the words 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Numbers 5:23 In-Context

21 here the priest puts the woman under this curse - 'may God cause your people to curse and revile you when he makes your womb shrivel and your belly swell.

22 Let this water that delivers a curse enter your body so that your belly swells and your womb shrivels.' "Then the woman shall say, 'Amen. Amen.'

23 "The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash the words off into the bitter water.

24 He then is to give the woman the bitter water that delivers a curse. This water will enter her body and cause acute pain.

25 The priest then is to take from her hands a handful of the Grain-Offering for jealousy, wave it before God, and bring it to the Altar.