Numbers 5:23

23 'The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall wash them off into the water of bitterness.

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 (then the priest shall have the woman swear with the oath of the curse, and the priest shall say to the woman ), "the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people by the LORD'S making your thigh waste away and your abdomen swell;

22 and this water that brings a curse shall go into your stomach, and make your abdomen swell and your thigh waste away." And the woman shall say, "Amen. Amen."

23 'The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall wash them off into the water of bitterness.

24 'Then he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings a curse, so that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness.

25 'The priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman's hand, and he shall wave the grain offering before the LORD and bring it to the altar;

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "wipe"