🔢WEB · Numbers 5:14
What does Numbers 5:14 mean?
"and the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she is defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she isn’t defiled:"
— Numbers 5:14 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them: ‘If any man’s wife goes astray, and is unfaithful to him,
and a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and this is kept concealed, and she is defiled, and there is no witness against her, and she isn’t taken in the act;
and the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she is defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she isn’t defiled:
then the man shall bring his wife to the priest, and shall bring her offering for her: one tenth of an ephah of barley meal. He shall pour no oil on it, nor put frankincense on it, for it is a meal offering of jealousy, a meal offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to memory.
The priest shall bring her near, and set her before Yahweh;
and the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water.
Explanation
Numbers 5:14 sits in the middle of a longer law (Numbers 5:11–31) describing what Israel called the ritual of the "sotah," or suspected wife. In plain language, the verse says that if a husband becomes overwhelmed by a feeling of jealousy or suspicion toward his wife — believing she has been unfaithful — this law applies in two possible situations: either she actually has been unfaithful and defiled herself, or she has not been unfaithful at all but he suspects her anyway. The text deliberately covers both cases, because from the husband's side, there is no way to know for certain which is true; there were no witnesses, only suspicion.
The context is the wilderness legal code given through Moses to the Israelites, part of a larger section in Numbers dealing with purity, holiness, and orderly community life. Ancient Israelite society had no forensic means of proving or disproving adultery when there was no eyewitness. A husband's jealousy, whether justified or not, could destabilize a marriage and create ongoing suspic
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