🔢WEB · Numbers 5:22
What does Numbers 5:22 mean?
"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.”"
— Numbers 5:22 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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.”
“‘The priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out into the water of bitterness.
He shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that causes the curse; and the water that causes the curse shall enter into her and become bitter.
The priest shall take the meal offering of jealousy out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the meal offering before Yahweh, and bring it to the altar.
Explanation
Numbers 5:22 comes from a passage describing the ritual for a woman suspected by her husband of adultery, when there were no witnesses to prove or disprove the accusation (Numbers 5:11-31). This section of Numbers is part of the priestly legislation given to Moses for Israel during the wilderness period, meant to regulate community life, worship, and justice while the nation was camped at Sinai and journeying toward the Promised Land. The verse itself records the words the priest instructs the accused woman to speak as part of a solemn oath ceremony, and her response of double affirmation, "Amen, Amen."
In plain terms, the ritual worked like this: the priest would prepare a mixture of water and dust from the tabernacle floor, uncover the woman's head, and place a grain offering in her hands. He would then pronounce a conditional curse — if she had committed adultery, the water she drank would cause her body to swell and her "thigh" (a euphemism likely referring to reproductive organs or her womb) to waste away, a visible sign of divine judgment and shame. If she was innocent, the water would have no effect, and she would be free of suspicion and able to bear children normally. By answering "Amen, Amen," the woman was placing herself under oath, agreeing that if she were guilty, this curse would justly fall upon her.
Theologically, this passage reveals that ancient Israel entrusted matters of hidden sin and unresolved suspicion to God's own judgment rather than to human accusation alone. Since no human witness could settle the matter, the
Compare translations
Go deeper with ScriptureCompanion AI
Ask questions about any verse, follow reading plans, write personal prayers, and track your daily habit — all grounded in verified scripture text.