Numbers 5:18
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After the priest has the woman stand before the LORD, he is to let down her hair and place in her hands the grain offering of memorial, which is the grain offering for jealousy. The priest is to hold the bitter water that brings a curse.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Spiritual Organization of theCongregation of Israel - Numbers 5-6 From the outward organization of the tribes of Israel as the army of Jehovah, the law proceeds to their internal moral and spiritual order, for the purpose of giving an _inward support, both moral and religious, to their outward or social and political unity. This is the object of the directions concerning the removal of unclean persons from the camp (Num 5:1-4), the restitution of anything unjustly appropriated (Num 5:5-10), the course to be pursued with a wife suspected of adultery (Num 5:11-31), and also of the laws relating to the Nazarite (Num 6:1-21), and to the priestly blessing (Num 6:22-27).
Open source ↗In this chapter we have, I. An order, pursuant to the laws already made, for the removing of the unclean out of the camp (Num 5:1-4). II. A repetition of the laws concerning restitution, in case of wrong done to a neighbour (Num 5:5-8), and concerning the appropriating of the hallowed things to the priests (Num 5:9, Num 5:10). III. A new law made concerning the trial of a wife suspected of adultery, by the waters of jealousy (Num 5:11, etc.).
Open source ↗Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
A diseased person must wear torn clothes and let his hair hang loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’
And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.
Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit,
May this water that brings a curse enter your stomach and cause your belly to swell and your thigh to shrivel.’ Then the woman is to say, ‘Amen, Amen.’
then he is to bring his wife to the priest. He must also bring for her an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He is not to pour oil over it or put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, an offering of memorial as a reminder of iniquity.
Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.” Agag came to him cheerfully, for he thought, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”
If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off. And if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head.
Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear of Me,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.
Then he is to take some holy water in a clay jar and put some of the dust from the tabernacle floor into the water.