Numbers 5:23

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

Numbers 5:23 in Other Translations

23 And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water:

23 "Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and wash them off into the water of bitterness.

23 And the priest will write these curses on a piece of leather and wash them off into the bitter water.

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

23 "Then the priest is to 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Numbers 5:23 In-Context

21 here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the LORD cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell.

22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.” “ ‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.”

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

24 He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her.

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

Cross References

• 1. Jeremiah 45:1