Numbers 5:11-31 (NKJV)
¹¹  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
¹²  "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'If any man's wife goes astray and behaves unfaithfully toward him,
¹³  and a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and it is concealed that she has defiled herself, and there was no witness against her, nor was she caught--
¹⁴  if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, who has defiled herself; or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, although she has not defiled herself--
¹⁵  then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. He shall bring the offering required for her, one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of jealousy, an offering for remembering, for bringing iniquity to remembrance.
¹⁶  'And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD.
¹⁷  The priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water.
¹⁸  Then the priest shall stand the woman before the LORD, uncover the woman's head, and put the offering for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse.
¹⁹  And the priest shall put her under oath, and say to the woman, "If no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray to uncleanness while under your husband's authority, be free from this bitter water that brings a curse.
²⁰  But if you have gone astray while under your husband's authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has lain with you"--
²¹  then the priest shall put the woman under the oath of the curse, and he shall say to the woman--"the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the LORD makes your thigh rot and your belly swell;
²²  and may this water that causes the curse go into your stomach, and make your belly swell and your thigh rot." Then the woman shall say, "Amen, so be it."
²³  'Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall scrape them off into the bitter water.
²⁴  And he shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter her to become bitter.
²⁵  Then the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman's hand, shall wave the offering before the LORD, and bring it to the altar;
²⁶  and the priest shall take a handful of the offering, as its memorial portion, burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water.
²⁷  When he has made her drink the water, then it shall be, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, that the water that brings a curse will enter her and become bitter, and her belly will swell, her thigh will rot, and the woman will become a curse among her people.
²⁸  But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she shall be free and may conceive children.
²⁹  'This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, while under her husband's authority, goes astray and defiles herself,
³⁰  or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man, and he becomes jealous of his wife; then he shall stand the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute all this law upon her.
³¹  Then the man shall be free from iniquity, but that woman shall bear her guilt.' "

Some Comments About an Uncomfortable Passage of Scripture

Cultural disconnect

This is one of those passages with which I feel uncomfortable, like it should be here, or at least be re-written to be more culturally acceptable.  There’s another passage like that in Genesis, in which the angels visit Lot and his family and, during the night, the home is accosted by man intend on raping the guests.  Lot tries to appease them by offering his daughter, but fortunately the angels intervene, strike all of them with blindness and then start making arrangements for Lot and his family to leave the city before judgment falls.  Now I can understand Lot trying to protect his guests, but the thought of him offering his daughters appalls me.  I can’t imagine any loving father saying such a thing.  The Bible shows examples of the cultural mores of the time, and reports them without necessarily indicating God’s approval.  This may be one of those passages.  This passage, here in Numbers 5, is another one.

            Why just the wife

In this passage (Numbers 5:11-31) the Lord instructs Moses regarding cases of jealousy, in which the husband suspects his wife of infidelity but cannot prove it.  My first response to this is, “but what if it is the wife who suspects her husband?  Does this ceremony work in reverse?”  I think I once read somewhere that rabbinic commentary on the passage indicated that was indeed the case, but the fact that it only mentions the husband’s jealous bothers me.

            What about the other man?

The spirit of jealousy comes upon the husband and the only way to deal with it is to have the wife take a sacred oath before God, with the priest giving an offering and invoking a curse that will result in devastating sickness if she is guilty, but will also exonerate her if innocent.  What about the other man?  If she is guilty and stricken and made a curse among her people, what of the other party in the adultery?  The passage does not answer that question.

What can we take from this?

In ancient times such cases were settled by some sort of trial by ordeal, in which the accused is placed in a life-threatening situation and if she survives, then that is an indication that God, or the gods, have intervened because she is innocent.  For example, if the accused wife does not know how to swim, throw her into the middle of a lake or large river and if she somehow makes it to shore, then maybe she is innocent after all.  Numbers offers a different approach in that the interested parties were to take the matter before the Lord, and let Him deal with it.  But in such times and settings in which women were treated as property, a jealous husband may simply take matters in to his own hands and kill her.  With this passage the husband, the person in power, does not have the right to take matters into his own hands.  Here, the Bible demands that the person in power use restraint.

            Oaths are serious business, as are curses.

Another thing we can take from this passage is that promises, oaths, and yes, curses are taken seriously in the Bible, though to my knowledge only God invokes a curse. (Note, by the way, John 3:17)  It is not something people should be doing.  There are other passages in which promises or oaths are expected to be honored, even if a great personal cost. (consider the unfortunate case of the Israeli general Jephthah and his daughter; Judges 11.  The case does not mean that the Bible tells us to kill our children).

            Compare this with the Spiritual Gift of Discernment

Another take away is to compare this ceremony as a prayer for the revelation of truth and justice, and in that regard it bears some similarity to the Spiritual Gift of Discernment in the New Testament.  With that gift the Holy Spirit has a way of revealing truth that has not been shared by other means, including matters of truth and justice.

            God has a way of exposing sin

Finally, this passage enforces the Bible assertion that God has a way of dealing with sin, even if the perpetrator avoids detection from people.  Psalms 90:8 says, “You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.”  We can fool other people; we can never fool the Lord.  Ponder who you are in secret carefully, because God can bring it to light.