Matthew Henry on Numbers 5:11–end
We have here the law concerning the solemn trial of a wife whose husband was jealous of her. Observe,
I. What was the case supposed: That a man had some reason to suspect his wife to have committed adultery, Num 5:12-14. Here, 1. The sin of adultery is justly represented as an exceedingly sinful sin; it is going aside from God and virtue, and the good way, Pro 2:17. It is committing a trespass against the husband, robbing him of his honour, alienating his right, introducing a spurious breed into his family to share with his children in his estate, and violating her covenant with him. It is being defiled; for nothing pollutes the mind and conscience more than this sin does. 2. It is supposed…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Numbers 5:23
write these curses in a book--The imprecations, along with her name, were inscribed in some kind of record--on parchment, or more probably on a wooden tablet.
blot them out with the bitter water--If she were innocent, they could be easily erased, and were perfectly harmless; but if guilty, she would experience the fatal effects of the water she had drunk.
John Gill on Numbers 5:27
And when he hath made her to drink the water,.... For, as before observed, and here by Jarchi again, if she says I will not drink it, after the roll is blotted out, they oblige her, and make her drink it whether she will or not, unless she says I am defiled:
then it shall come to pass, that if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband; or has committed adultery:
that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter; the water drank by her, and having the curses scraped into it, shall enter into her, and operate and produce bitter and dreadful effects:
and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot; not through any natural virtue in the water, o…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Numbers 5:11–end
Numbers 5:11-31
11. And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,
11. Loquutus est Jehova ad Mosen, dicendo:
12. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him,
12. Alloquere filios Israel, et dicas illis, Quum diverterit uxor cujuspiam, et praevaricata fuerit praevaricatione:
13. And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and he kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner;
13. Et coierit aliquis cum ea coitu seminis, absconditum autem fuerit ab oculis viri sui et delituerit, ipsaque polluta fuerit: testis vero non fuerit contra…
