🔢WEB · Numbers 5:19
What does Numbers 5:19 mean?
"The priest shall cause her to swear, and shall tell the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you haven’t gone aside to uncleanness, being under your husband, be free from this water of bitterness that brings a curse."
— Numbers 5:19 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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.
The priest shall set the woman before Yahweh, and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose, and put the meal offering of memorial in her hands, which is the meal offering of jealousy. The priest shall have in his hand the water of bitterness that brings a curse.
The priest shall cause her to swear, and shall tell the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you haven’t gone aside to uncleanness, being under your husband, be free from this water of bitterness that brings a curse.
But if you have gone astray, being under your husband, and if you are defiled, and some man has lain with you besides your husband:”
then the priest shall cause the woman to swear with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall tell the woman, “Yahweh make you a curse and an oath among your people, when Yahweh allows your thigh to fall away, and your body to swell;
and this water that brings a curse will go into your bowels, and make your body swell, and your thigh fall away.” The woman shall say, “Amen, Amen.”
Explanation
Numbers 5:19 is part of a larger ritual described in Numbers 5:11-31, commonly called the test of the "bitter water" or the sotah ritual. In this specific verse, a priest places a woman under oath. If her husband suspects her of unfaithfulness but has no witnesses or proof, she is brought before the priest, who prepares a mixture of holy water and dust from the tabernacle floor. Before she drinks it, the priest requires her to swear an oath declaring her innocence: if she has not slept with another man and has not "gone aside to uncleanness" (a euphemism for sexual infidelity) while under her husband's authority, then she will be unharmed by the water. The passage that follows (verses 20-22) pairs this with the opposite declaration — if she is guilty, the water will bring physical suffering as a sign of that guilt.
This law was given through Moses to the Israelites during their wilderness journey, as part of the broader legal and ceremonial code meant to govern communal and family life. The historical setting mattered: in the ancient Near East, suspicion of adultery within a mar
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