Numbers 5:11-31--A Test for Adultery

Numbers 5:11-31
English Standard Version

A Test for Adultery
11 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 12 “Speak to the people of Israel, If any man's wife goes astray and breaks faith with him, 13 if a man lies with her sexually, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, since she was not taken in the act, 14 and if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself, 15 then the man shall bring his wife to the priest and bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance.

16 “And the priest shall bring her near and set her before the Lord. 17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. 18 And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and unbind the hair of the woman's head and place in her hands the grain offering of remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And in his hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse. 19 Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, ‘If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanness while you were under your husband's authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse. 20 But if you have gone astray, though you are under your husband's authority, and if you have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband has lain with you, 21 then’ (let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse, and say to the woman) ‘the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh fall away and your body swell. 22 May this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away.’ And the woman shall say, ‘Amen, Amen.’

23 “Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and wash them off into the water of bitterness. 24 And he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain. 25 And the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy out of the woman's hand and shall wave the grain offering before the Lord and bring it to the altar. 26 And the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering, as its memorial portion, and burn it on the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water. 27 And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people. 28 But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children.

​29 “This is the law in cases of jealousy, when a wife, though under her husband's authority, goes astray and defiles herself, 30 or when the spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife. Then he shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall carry out for her all this law. 31 The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”

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This passage feels a little out of place given that we've just been talking about forgiveness, reconciliation and restitution, but there is still an issue of being unclean because of sexual intercourse that was hidden because of marital unfaithfulness.  As we studied Leviticus we saw that any time that bodily fluids were exchanged or that there is a flow of blood or mucus or a discharge of any kind or even a wound that is oozing or seeping, that the the person is unclean and must isolate themselves from the camp.

Specifically, where this comes to sexual intercourse this plan of isolation after intercourse along with God's plan for one man and one woman being united in a monogamous covenant of marriage until the natural death of one or both spouses is still the best plan for preventing the spread of any sexually transmitted infections (STI's) and sexually transmitted diseases (STD's).  However, that's not really the main point here--we talked about all that already in the book of Leviticus.  The question again is what about when there is hidden adultery going on that causes impurity but also leads to broken faith where reconciliation is needed--is there any kind of restitution that can be made for that kind of damage?  What is the price that can be paid at 120% for the damages caused?  Is there a price that can be paid.

There are already laws in place for if there were witnesses or if the adultery was caught happening or if it was done openly and the other spouse knows about it.  All of those things were punishable by stoning (we see that in the New Testament where the woman was caught in adultery and brought to Jesus).  But if the man is jealous and suspects his wife of committing secret adultery, the husband is supposed to take his wife to the priest to stand before God and an "offering of jealousy" and "offering of remembrance" is to be brought to the priest and offered to the LORD (the offerings are described in the text if you're interested in comparing them to those in the book of Leviticus to see what kinds of offerings these are).

The priest then goes through a ceremony that doesn't make rational sense to us if we try and reduce it down to something that has a medical/physiological explanation that we just didn't understand at the time.  There is nothing special about the elements used here (holy water and dust), but it is not the first time that we've seen something like this used as a test for we saw that Moses ground up the golden calf and put it in water and made the Israelites drink it and those who committed idolatry became very ill--some to the point of death.  So, again, read this for what it is--a way that God gives the priests to mediate and make the right decision because God intervenes and "testifies" from heaven about who is innocent and who is guilty by way of this process that He has ordained.

The punishment for the woman if she had committed adultery, took the oath to say that she was pure and drank of the bitter water and was guilty seems to be that it would make her genital parts wither and cause her internal reproductive organs to swell (possibly even to burst) the end of which would be that the woman was infertile and probably unable to have further sexual relations (or at least undesirable to have sexual relations with).  It is a heinous act to not only break faith with the husband but to stand before God and swear an oath to your innocence knowing that you are all along guilty.  The punishment for this should be death, and it's possible (though not prescribed here specifically) that when God did do this thing that it would either kill her or that it would be enough evidence for those that were witnesses to take her out and stone her based off of the testimony of God.

If the woman is not guilty of adultery then she shall go free and no one is to continue to shame her or view her as accursed, and she will continue to be fertile--a big deal for women at that time.  So then, what if the man was jealous without cause?  Is there any punishment for him?  The short answer is "No."  That may not be very satisfying to us that the man may assume that his wife was being unfaithful and accuse her in a way that could damage her reputation and no harm comes to him other than the sacrifices that he's required to make, but the man is financially responsible for his wife and all of her children (even children that she has by secretly having an affair with another man and for which he does not force her to go through this ceremony as there seems to be some indication that part of the abdomen swelling would lead to a miscarriage if the woman had become pregnant).

This passage today was sort of a transition to shift us from the idea of basic "purity" as an idea of cleanliness to talking about integrity and keeping of vows.  Our next passage we'll talk about is about a special vow that is made to consecrate a man to the LORD, usually for a limited amount of time, but occasionally we see mothers make this vow for their sons before they are born and they are to keep it their entire lives (Samuel the prophet/judge and John the Baptist are "good" examples and Samson the judge did not keep this vow.  It also seems that Paul took this kind of vow as evidenced in Acts 18:18).  We'll talk about the Nazarite vow more tomorrow, but understand that God expects both purity (including sexual purity) and integrity (including sexual integrity) from his people.