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Thursday, August 21st, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Bilangan 5:28

Tetapi apabila perempuan itu tidak mencemarkan dirinya, melainkan ia suci, maka ia akan bebas dan akan dapat beranak."

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Adultery;   Husband;   Jealousy;   Priest;   Wife;   Women;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Woman;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Adultery;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Husband;   Oath;   Priest;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Abortion;   Consecrate;   Jealousy;   Offerings and Sacrifices;   Priest, Priesthood;   Woman;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Adultery;   Water of Jealousy;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Adultery;   Priest;   Water of Jealousy;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Bitter Water;   Court Systems;   Jealousy;   Jealousy, Ordeal of;   Judge (Office);   Sex, Biblical Teaching on;   Woman;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Jealousy;   Magic, Divination, and Sorcery;   Marriage;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Dropsy;   Nazirite;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Adultery;   Jealousy,;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Elisha;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Adultery;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Water of Jealousy;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Jealousy;   Swell;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Abner of Burgos;   Abrogation of Laws;   Adultery;   'Akabia ben Mahalalel;   Hammurabi;   Hezekiah ben Parnak;   Marriage;   Mishnah;   Nashim;   Ordeal;   Sidra;   Soṭah;  

Parallel Translations

Alkitab Terjemahan Baru
Tetapi apabila perempuan itu tidak mencemarkan dirinya, melainkan ia suci, maka ia akan bebas dan akan dapat beranak."
Alkitab Terjemahan Lama
Tetapi jikalau perempuan itu tiada mencemarkan dirinya, melainkan sucilah ia dari pada salah, maka satupun celaka tiada ia kena dan dalam hal kawinnya iapun akan berbiak adanya.

Contextual Overview

11 And the Lorde spake vnto Moyses, saying: 12 Speake vnto the children of Israel, and say vnto them: If any mans wyfe go aside, and trespasse agaynst hym, 13 So that another man lye with her fleshly, and it be hid from the eyes of her husbande, and is kept close that she is defyled, and there is no witnesse against her, neither she taken with the maner, 14 And the spirite of gelousie commeth vpon hym, so that he is gelous ouer his wyfe which is defyled: or if the spirite of gelousie come vpon hym, so that he is gelous ouer his wyfe which is yet vndefyled: 15 Then let the man bring his wyfe vnto the priest, and bring her offeryng with her, the tenth part of an Epha of barly meale: but let hym put no oyle vpon it, nor put frankensence theron, for it is an offeryng of gelousie, an offeryng for a remembraunce, causyng the sinne to be thought vpon. 16 And the priest shall bryng her, and set her before the Lorde. 17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and of the dust that is in the floore of the tabernacle, the priest shal take it, and put it into ye water. 18 And let the priest set the woman before the Lorde, and vncouer the womans head, and put the offering of memoriall in her handes, which is the gelousie offeryng: and the priest shall haue bytter and cursed water in his hande. 19 And the priest shall charge her by an othe, and say vnto the woman: If no man haue lyen with thee, neither hast gone aside to vncleannesse without thy husbande, then haue thou no harme of this bitter and cursed waters. 20 But and if thou hast gone aside from thyne husbande, and art defiled, and some man hath lyen with thee beside thyne husbande:

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

And if: Numbers 5:19, Micah 7:7-10, 2 Corinthians 4:17, 1 Peter 1:7

and shall: Psalms 113:9

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean,.... If she is not guilty of adultery, but pure from that sin:

then she shall be free; from the effects of the bitter water; they shall have no such influence upon her, but she shall be as soured and healthful as ever; nay, the Jewish writers say more so, that if she had any sickness or disease upon her she would now be freed from it n; the Targum of Jonathan has it, her splendour shall shine, the brightness and beauty of her countenance:

and shall conceive seed; a man child, as the same Targum; and the Jewish writers say, if she was barren before, now she would be fruitful; but no more is meant by it than that her husband should receive her gladly, and she should live comfortably with him hereafter, and the blessing of God would be upon her, which would still be a confirmation of her chastity.

n Maimon. Hilchot Sotah, c. 3. sect. 22.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The trial of jealousy. Since the crime of adultery is especially defiling and destructive of the very foundations of social order, the whole subject is dealt with at a length proportionate to its importance. The process prescribed has lately been strikingly illustrated from an Egyptian “romance,” which refers to the time of Rameses the Great, and may therefore well serve to illustrate the manners and customs of the Mosaic times. This mode of trial, like several other ordinances, was adopted by Moses from existing and probably very ancient and widely spread institutions.

Numbers 5:15

The offering was to be of the cheapest and coarsest kind, barley (compare 2 Kings 7:1, 2 Kings 7:16, 2 Kings 7:18), representing the abused condition of the suspected woman. It was, like the sin-offering Leviticus 5:11, to be made without oil and frankincense, the symbols of grace and acceptableness. The woman herself stood with head uncovered Numbers 5:18, in token of her shame.

Numbers 5:17

The dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle - To set forth the fact that the water was endued with extraordinary power by Him who dwelt in the tabernacle. Dust is an emblem of a state of condemnation Genesis 3:14; Micah 7:17.

Numbers 5:19

Gone aside ... - literally, “gone astray from” thy husband by uncleanness; compare Hosea 4:12.

Numbers 5:23

Blot them out with the bitter water - In order to transfer the curses to the water. The action was symbolic. Travelers speak of the natives of Africa as still habitually seeking to obtain the full force of a written charm by drinking the water into which they have washed it.

Numbers 5:24

Shall cause the woman to drink - Thus was symbolised both her full acceptance of the hypothetical curse (compare Ezekiel 3:1-3; Jeremiah 15:16; Revelation 10:9), and its actual operation upon her if she should be guilty (compare Psalms 109:18).

Numbers 5:26

The memorial thereof - See the marginal reference. “Memorial” here is not the same as “memorial” in Numbers 5:15.

Numbers 5:27

Of itself, the drink was not noxious; and could only produce the effects here described by a special interposition of God. We do not read of any instance in which this ordeal was resorted to: a fact which may be explained either (with the Jews) as a proof of its efficacy, since the guilty could not be brought to face its terrors at all, and avoided them by confession; or more probably by the license of divorce tolerated by the law of Moses. Since a husband could put away his wife at pleasure, a jealous man would naturally prefer to take this course with a suspected wife rather than to call public attention to his own shame by having recourse to the trial of jealousy. The trial by red water, which bears a general resemblance to that here prescribed by Moses, is still in use among the tribes of Western Africa.


 
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