-- then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, a tenth part of an ephah of barley-meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an oblation of jealousy, a memorial oblation, bringing iniquity to remembrance.
A husband suspects his wife, and the law tells him neither to bury it nor to act on it — he must bring her, with a set offering, to the priest. Every detail counts: coarse grain instead of fine, nothing poured on it, nothing burned with it for fragrance.
The reason for the test lies in where Israel was camped.
The camp was to be holy as the dwelling place of God. If jealousy about his wife entered a man's mind, it was not to be left to fester there. It had to be tested: was it based on fact or on fancy? If true, judgment fell on the woman. If false, she was free, and shown to be so.
Unlike the case just before it, no wrong has been proved here.
But there is another case where there was not a trespass, but a suspicion of evil, and this too in the closest relationship — the husband about his wife. Now the LORD had His eye on this. He would not have anyone hardened. What is more dreadful than to be carrying suspicions? … It was not human feeling, but connection with God Himself, and a judgment of what was unsuitable for His presence.
Ordinary grain offerings used fine wheat flour. Here it is barley. One writer ties the change to what fine flour pictures:
The truth seems to be that the grain offering of fine wheat flour represents Christ, as we have seen… In the case before us the leaven would have implied guilt, and the fine wheat would have been out of place. The barley meal is coarser and more common. It might well picture a life that could not be claimed to be very much in God's sight, yet not corrupted in the way charged.
Barley also marks the kind of trouble this is:
In the trial of jealousy an offering was made of barley meal, without oil or frankincense, Num. 5:15. It was a household sorrow, that never ought to have happened; but if the sin was there it had to be judged.
Three things are missing from this offering, and each one has a reason:
It had no leaven mixed in, for that would have implied the guilt of the accused woman before the test. It had no oil or frankincense on it either. No joy and worship could go with this offering of jealousy.
The verse calls it a grain offering of remembrance, and one writer explains what that remembrance asked for: "This, offered from the woman's hand, would indeed call for God's remembrance as to its truth or falsehood" (Numerical Bible Notes). The priest's next act showed who would settle the case.
This ordinance was meant to bring hidden unfaithfulness to light. The high priest set the suspected wife before God, the Searcher of hearts. He then put into her hand "the grain offering of jealousy." Her husband had prepared it, in a way suited to her approach to God. The priest afterwards took it from her hand and waved it before the LORD, offering the memorial of it on the altar. This action placed the matter in God's hands, on behalf of both husband and wife.
Commentators also read the ordinance as a picture of God and Israel.
Israel could not endure the searching trial of the bitter water. Her unfaithfulness has been made plain. She has broken her vows. She has gone away from her Husband, the Holy One of Israel… He is a jealous God. He cannot bear the thought that the heart He claims as His own should be given to another.
The cleared wife went free, and Bellett applies that ending to Israel: "There is forgiveness with the Lord for Israel… she will then be set free, the free woman and a joyful mother of children" (J. G. Bellett).
Kelly turns this on the reader: what do you do when suspicion falls on you?
It may be very painful for us to be suspected. But when we are, let us never resent it in the pride of our hearts… A restless desire to explain away and deny is always a sign of weakness at the least, and very often of guilt. As a rule, the fiercer the denial, the more certain the guilt.
- Suspicion — a doubt in the closest relationship must not be nursed in secret. God gave a way to test it.
- Barley — the coarse grain marks a household sorrow that should never have arisen. It pictures a life not yet proved pure or corrupt.
- Bare — no oil, no frankincense, no leaven — no joy and no worship could go with it.
- Memorial — waving it before the LORD placed the question in God's hands, not the husband's.
- Mercy — read of Israel, the trial exposed her unfaithfulness. But the blessing promised to the cleared wife is what God still intends.
And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before Jehovah.
The priest's act here is small but decisive. He brings the woman near and stands her before God. Everything that follows — the offering, the dust, the bitter water — depends on who is now judging the case.
The whole chapter deals with what cannot stay in a camp with God at its centre:
In Numbers 5 we come to another view... Defilement, or suspected defilement, is what is dealt with here; but the principle always fits the character of the book. The subject is not now the priests, but the camp of the LORD. He is pleased to be with the people, and He is there in the very middle of their camp. They had to take care to avoid what was unsuitable for the presence of God.
So a private suspicion between husband and wife became a matter for the priest. God was living in the camp.
The law does not tell the man to bury his suspicion or to act on it himself:
The camp was to be holy, as the dwelling place of God. So if jealousy about his wife entered a man's mind, it was not to be left to fester there. It had to be tested, whether it was based on fact or on imagination. If it was true, judgment fell on the woman. If it was false, she was free, and shown to be so.
Kelly adds what the ceremony kept out of the process — raw human emotion:
What is more dreadful than to be carrying suspicions? We ought to watch against it... In this we see the LORD making a special provision for it. He ordered the use of what is called here "the waters of jealousy." The wife was to be brought to the priest, and everything was to be done in a holy way. It was not human feeling, but connection with God Himself, and a judgment of what was unsuitable for His presence.
The priest brings her near, but he is not the judge:
However, this was not a matter even for the priest to judge. When the procedure given in Scripture was followed, the whole matter was left in God's hand, and He would make the woman's guilt or her innocence plain... Then the priest was to take holy water in an earthen vessel and mix dust with it from the tabernacle floor. The holy water speaks of life, but the dust speaks of death (Ps. 22:15). If there was no sin unto death, life would be given, but guilt would lead to death.
Bellett explains what the uncovering of her head meant:
The high priest set a suspected wife in the presence of God as the Searcher of hearts. Her head was uncovered, as a sign that on this occasion she knew no subjection to anyone but the Lord. She took the covering off her head, because that covering was the sign of her subjection to her husband (1 Cor. 11:3).
Darby sees the Holy Spirit at work behind the trial:
When the power of the Holy Spirit judges in this way (according to the sentence of death against the flesh), the unfaithfulness that was thought to be hidden from the true husband of the people is made plain. This brings down the chastening and the curse upon the unfaithful one... But if we are free from unfaithfulness, the result of the trial is only negative. It shows that the Spirit of holiness finds nothing to judge, when He applies death according to the holiness of God.
Darby is careful to say what this is not about:
All these things apply to the judgment of our ways in the wilderness journey, since God is in our midst. They do not apply to the acceptance of the believer, or of the church, as to righteousness. That is dealt with where drawing near to God is the question.
Kelly turns the ordinance into a test of our own spirit:
I have no doubt this is a type, whether of Israel or of Christendom; but for our own moral profit it is all-important. It may be very painful for us to be suspected, but when we are, let us never resent it in the pride of our hearts... It is always a sign of weakness at the least, and very often of guilt, when there is a restless desire to explain away and deny. As a rule, the fiercer the denial, the more certain the guilt... Where the heart is willing that everything should be fully tested in the presence of God, instead of refusing an insinuation or pushing it away in a fleshly way out of the pride of our nature, the Lord takes up the cause of the one suspected without reason, and makes everything flourish as never before.
- Dwelling. God lived in the middle of the camp, so nothing unsuited to His presence could be left unaddressed.
- Brought. Suspicion was not to be buried or acted on privately; it was brought to the priest and tested before God.
- Set. Standing her before the LORD took the verdict out of the priest's hands. God alone would make guilt or innocence plain.
- Searched. Holy water speaks of life and dust of death. Hidden unfaithfulness is made plain, and where there is none the test finds nothing.
- Result. For the guilty, a curse; for the innocent, a clearing that makes everything flourish — and for us, a call to welcome testing before God instead of resenting it.
And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and the priest shall take of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle, and put it into the water.
When a husband suspected his wife but had no proof, God did not leave the matter to human guesswork. He gave a ceremony, and at its centre sits a strange mixture in a clay pot: why water, why dust, and why dust from that floor?
The water was not ordinary water, and the dust was not ordinary dirt. One writer walks through the ceremony, from the mixing to the verdict.
Then the priest held a vessel of holy water — water taken from the bronze basin — mixed with dust. The dust was the sign of the curse, the fruit of sin (Genesis 3:19). The priest put the woman on oath, and read to her the curses that would come on her if she were guilty… Then the priest wrote the curses in a book, blotted them out with some of the bitter water, and gave the rest of it to the woman to drink… But if her husband's suspicions had wronged her, none of these curses would happen to her. They would all be blotted out, so that no one could read them again; and being freed and cleared, she would receive strength from the Lord to have a child.
One writer reads the two ingredients as two spiritual powers working together in one cup.
Someone may question the faithfulness of Israel, the church, or an individual to God or to Christ. Then there must be a testing of it. To me, the dust of the tabernacle was the power of death in God's presence. It was fatal to the natural man. But for the one who has life it was precious, as the death of sin. The water is the power of the Holy Spirit acting by the word on the conscience… To drink death, by the power of the Spirit, is life to the soul.
The dust came from the ground of God's own dwelling, where He had come to live among His people.
The priest puts holy (that is, consecrated) water into an earthen vessel, and mixes dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. The dust here is, as usual, "the dust of death." It comes from the tabernacle floor, and that shows that even so God has come in for man. Death remains, and as judgment on the flesh, and yet for blessing.
The searching test was the innocent woman's friend, not her enemy.
If there was a trace of guilt, the bitter water could search down into the very depths of the soul and bring it fully out. There was no escape for the guilty one. And we may say this: because no escape was possible for the guilty, the clearing of the innocent was all the more triumphant. The same process that declared the guilt of the guilty made clear the innocence of the faithful.
Suspicion hurts, and the first instinct is to fight back. One writer turns the bitter cup into a lesson on answering an accusation.
A restless desire to explain away and deny is always a sign of weakness at the least, and very often a sign of guilt. As a rule, the fiercer the denial, the more certain the guilt… What meets everything so well as taking the place of death to all that is here below? It is very clear that a dead man does not resent an injury.
The ordinance also pictures the nation itself as a wife on trial.
Israel could not stand up to the searching trial of the bitter water. Her unfaithfulness is now plain. She has broken her vows. She has turned away from her Husband, the Holy One of Israel. He has poured out His burning jealousy on the unfaithful nation.
Accusers once brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus and pressed the law of Moses on Him.
The accusers wanted Him to apply the law of Moses to the adulteress. If He had applied it to the nation, He would have had to "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." As a priest of the tabernacle, He would then have brought the question before the Lord. This He refuses to do, and now notice how He moves into His own heights and depths of love.
- Suspicion — God did not leave jealousy to fester in a man's heart. He gave a way to settle it in His own presence.
- Water — The holy water came from the tabernacle basin. It pictures the Spirit using God's word on the conscience.
- Dust — Dust means death and the curse. Yet it came from the floor of God's own house: death as judgment on the flesh, and still for blessing.
- Verdict — One cup did two things at once. It exposed hidden guilt, and it cleared the innocent woman beyond doubt.
- Mercy — The nation drank and proved unfaithful. Yet when accusers pressed the law on Jesus, He refused that trial and moved into love.
And the priest shall set the woman before Jehovah, and uncover the woman's head, and put the memorial oblation in her hands, which is the jealousy offering; and in the hand of the priest shall be the bitter water that bringeth the curse.
A husband suspects his wife of being unfaithful, and no witness can settle the matter. So the case goes into the sanctuary, where God alone can answer it, and where hidden sin — real or only imagined — comes into the open.
Nothing has been proved here. One writer marks out what makes the case unusual, and how carefully God met it.
There was another case: not a trespass, but a suspicion of evil — and that in the closest relationship of all, a husband about his wife. The LORD had His eye on this… He ordered the administration of what is called here "the waters of jealousy." The wife was to be brought to the priest; everything was to be done in a holy way. It was not human feeling, but connection with God Himself, and a judgment of what was unsuitable for His presence.
The priest sets her before God, who searches hearts, then loosens her hair. Writers read that act in two ways. Some see the removal of the sign of her subjection to her husband, since for this moment she answers to God alone.
A suspected wife was set by the high priest in the presence of God as the Searcher of hearts. Her head was uncovered as a sign that on this occasion she knew no subjection to anyone but the Lord. So she removed the covering from her head, because that covering was the sign of subjection to her husband.
Others read the same act as a public mark of shame.
In the Old Testament, an uncovered or shaved head on a woman was a mark of shame. This verse shows it, where a wife was under suspicion by her husband… She must have no marks of shame upon her in the presence of the Lord.
What she holds is a grain offering unlike any other. Every missing ingredient says something, and the ceremony it belongs to ends in God's own verdict.
The offering was not of fine flour, as in the grain offering, but of barley meal, which was coarser. It had no leaven in it, for that would have implied the guilt of the accused woman before the test. It had no oil or frankincense either. No joy and worship could go with this offering of jealousy… It was a most solemn ceremony of a searching nature. The innocent woman had nothing to fear; for her, drinking the bitter water that brings the curse only resulted in vindication. The guilty one was found out by the LORD, and the curse rested upon her.
The verse calls this an offering of remembrance. One writer sees the plain barley as fitting a sorrow at home: "It was a domestic sorrow, that never ought to occur; but if the sin was there it must be judged" (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
The priest holds bitter water: holy water from the sanctuary, with dust from the tabernacle floor stirred in. That dust carries the weight of the ordeal.
The dust here is, as usual, "the dust of death." Coming from the tabernacle floor, it shows that God has still come in for man. Death remains, and it is judgment on the flesh, and yet for blessing. The cross of Christ has made this familiar to us as Christians.
The ordinance reaches past one marriage. One writer applies it to Israel, found unfaithful and yet promised a future.
She has played the harlot, it is true, and the trial of jealousy has found it so. She has said, "I will go after my lovers." But the Lord has also said, "I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy." When this comes to pass, the very blessing promised to the wife who stood acquitted shall be Israel's. She shall then be made free — the free woman and a joyful mother of children.
The trial also speaks to anyone under suspicion today.
It may be very painful for us to be suspected. But when we are, let us never resent it in the pride of our hearts… A restless desire to explain away and deny is always a sign of weakness at the least, and very often of guilt. As a rule, the fiercer the denial, the more certain the guilt… It is very evident that a dead man does not resent an injury.
- Suspicion — a doubt no one can prove does not stay at home to fester; it goes into God's presence and is settled there.
- Stripped — the loosed hair and the offering without oil or frankincense leave the scene bare of covering and of joy. Commentators differ over whether the loosed hair marks shame or answering to God alone.
- Death — the water carries dust from the sanctuary floor — the dust of death, judgment on the flesh and yet for blessing, made familiar by the cross.
- Verdict — God alone gives it: the guilty one is found out, the innocent one is vindicated.
- Mercy — the same trial pictures a nation found unfaithful, yet promised at last the blessing of the acquitted wife.
And the priest shall adjure her, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone astray in uncleanness, in being with another instead of thy husband, be free from this bitter water that bringeth the curse.
A husband suspects his wife but has no proof. In Numbers 5:19 the priest's first words offer her a way out, not a curse — so why does God act on a mere suspicion, and what is this bitter water?
The chapter deals with what defiles the place where God lives among His people. This last case involves no proven wrong. There is only a shadow over the closest of human bonds.
But there is another case, where there was not a trespass but a suspicion of evil. It happens in the closest relationship — the husband about his wife. Now the Lord had His eye on this. He did not want anyone to grow hardened. What is more dreadful than to be carrying suspicions? … The wife was to be brought to the priest; everything was to be done in a holy way. It was not human feeling, but connection with God Himself, and a judgment of what was unsuitable for His presence.
The chapter moves in three steps, and this ordinance is the last one.
In the first section, the people as a whole judge evil. In the second, each person judges himself, confesses, and makes restitution. In the third, we learn that God cannot endure even the mere suspicion of evil.
The priest puts the woman under oath, but he never gives the verdict.
However, this was not a matter even for the priest to judge. When they followed the procedure Scripture laid down, the whole matter rested in the hand of God, who would bring the woman's guilt or her innocence to light.
The law called for oaths on other occasions too.
The law set out several occasions when a person had to swear an oath. In those cases God required His people to swear by His name (Deuteronomy 6:13; Exodus 22:11; Numbers 5:19-21). The oath did more than confirm the truth. It was also a solemn vow before the Lord, in the knowledge of His presence.
Her drink has two ingredients, both from the tabernacle — the tent where God lived among Israel.
The woman had to drink bitter water, made of "holy water" with dust from the floor of the tabernacle in it. This pictures the Holy Spirit applying what death is, as God's judgment of sin, by the word to the conscience. If she had been unfaithful it would be a curse to her. It pointed in a figure to Israel's unfaithfulness to the Lord.
The two ingredients point in opposite directions.
The priest was to take holy water in an earthen vessel and mix dust with it from the tabernacle floor. The holy water speaks of life, but the dust speaks of death (Psalm 22:15). Where there was no sin unto death, there would be life; but guilt would lead to death.
God Himself provided the test, and it settles the case either way.
Where there was even the suspicion of evil, and no evidence available, He Himself devised a method of trial that brought the truth perfectly to light. The guilty one had to drink death, and found it to be judgment. The faithful one drank death, and found it victory.
Read as a picture of Israel, the ordinance does not end with the curse. It ends with restoration.
She has played the harlot, it is true, and the trial of jealousy has found it so. She has said, "I will go after my lovers." But the Lord has also said, "I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy" (see Hosea 2, 3). And when that day comes, the blessing promised to the wife who stood acquitted in the trial of jealousy will be Israel's.
The ordeal also has a lesson for anyone who falls under suspicion.
It may be very painful for us to be suspected. But when we are, let us never resent it in the pride of our hearts… A restless desire to explain away and deny is always a sign of weakness at the least, and very often of guilt. As a rule, the fiercer the denial, the more certain the guilt… When the heart is willing to have God test everything in His presence, the Lord takes up the cause of the one suspected without cause, and makes everything flourish as never before.
- Suspicion — God will not let a shadow sit untested in the home or the camp. Even unproven evil is unsuitable for His presence.
- Oath — The priest speaks the words, but they place the woman before God. He alone knows, and He alone gives the verdict.
- Water — Holy water speaks of life; the dust from the tabernacle floor speaks of death, God's judgment of sin.
- Freedom — The priest's first word to her is release. The innocent drink death and find victory; the guilty drink and find judgment.
- Restoration — For Israel the test exposed unfaithfulness, yet God's promise ends in re-betrothal and blessing. The believer under false suspicion can face the test without resentment.
But if thou hast gone astray to another instead of thy husband, and hast been defiled, and a man other than thy husband have lain with thee,
The priest's oath now names the dark possibility — a wife who has turned aside while still bound to her husband. Why would God make a law for a sin no one could prove, and why place it here, in a chapter about keeping the camp clean?
God lived in the middle of the camp. That one fact shapes the whole chapter.
Chapter 5 presents three things. They have to do with the purity of the camp, seen as the dwelling-place of God, and with our pilgrim journey through the wilderness, which is the great subject of the Book of Numbers. On that journey everything is put to the test, and the presence of God, ungrieved among us, is our only security, guidance, and strength.
Notice that nothing has been proved. The husband suspects; there are no witnesses. Yet God provides a trial rather than let the doubt sit.
Suspicion on its own is unbearable. Where it takes hold of the heart, the matter must be sifted right down to the bottom. The suspected one must go through a test so searching that only a faithful person can endure it. If there was a trace of guilt, the bitter water could search down into the very depths of the soul, and bring it fully out.
This verse is the priest's own speech. One writer walks through the ceremony around it.
Her head was uncovered, to show that on this occasion she knew no subjection to anyone but the Lord. She took the covering off her head, because that covering was the sign of subjection to her husband (1 Cor. 11:3). Then the priest held a vessel of holy water — water taken from the bronze basin — mixed with dust (the sign of curse, or the fruit of sin; Gen. 3:19). He solemnly put the woman under oath and read her the curses that would come upon her if she were guilty. If she chose to face the trial after all this warning, she said, "Amen, Amen." Then the priest wrote the curses in a book, blotted them with some of the bitter water, and gave the rest of it to the woman to drink.
Each of the two ingredients carried its own meaning.
It seems to me that the dust of the tabernacle was the power of death in God's presence. That death was fatal to the natural man, but precious, as the death of sin, for the one who has life. The water is the power of the Holy Spirit acting by the word on the conscience.
The same water met two women, and the results were opposite.
If she had been unfaithful, the water would enter her and turn bitter; her belly would swell and her thigh would rot, and she would become a curse among the people. But if her husband's suspicions had wronged her, none of these things would happen to her. The curses in the book would all be blotted out, so that they could be read no more; and so, set free and cleared, she would receive strength from the Lord to bear children.
Another writer puts the difference in one line.
The guilty one had to drink death, and found it to be judgement. The faithful one drank death, and found it victory.
One writer reads the trial on a national scale, with Israel as the wife. He sets Israel's own cry beside the woman's "Amen."
At last the Lord pleads with her by this ordeal, while she defies divine justice, like any hardened wife who would dare to face the trial with the awareness of sin upon her. "His blood be on us and on our children," from the lips of Israel, was like the woman's "Amen" to the calling down of the curse.
The same writer does not stop with judgment.
She has played the harlot, it is true, and the trial of jealousy has found it so. She has said, "I will go after my lovers." But the Lord has also said, "I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, and in justice, and in steadfast love, and in mercy."
The law tests the wife, not the husband. One writer sees a reason for that.
The man primarily is a picture of Christ, in whom there can never be even the least suspicion of unfaithfulness. "If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself" (2 Tim. 2:13). But believers are joined to the Lord by a bond pictured by marriage (Rom. 7:4), and they often face the danger of becoming unfaithful to Him.
- Dwelling. God lived in the middle of the camp, so hidden disloyalty was never a private matter.
- Suspicion. Rather than leave doubt to poison a marriage, God supplied a trial that settled it completely.
- Death. The dust and water together bring the sentence of death and the Spirit's word to bear on the conscience.
- Verdict. The same cup judged the guilty and cleared the innocent. The curses written against her were blotted out.
- Betrothal. For Israel the trial exposed unfaithfulness, yet the Lord's answer is not divorce but a fresh betrothal in steadfast love.
-- then the priest shall adjure the woman with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman Jehovah make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when Jehovah doth make thy thigh to shrink, and thy belly to swell;
The priest does not decide this case. He puts the woman under a solemn oath and reads out the curse that would fall on her if she is guilty. Then he leaves the matter with God, who alone can see a hidden life.
The priest says the curse out loud before she drinks anything. She must then answer for herself:
The priest would put the offering in the woman's hand and hold the bitter water himself. If she was guilty, that water would bring a curse on her. Then the priest would put her under oath. Of course, if she had already confessed her guilt, this would not be needed. Her oath was a statement that she was not guilty. The priest would warn her that if she was lying, the Lord would make her thigh rot and her belly swell, so that she became a curse among the people (v.21). She was to answer, "Amen, so be it" (v.22).
This is the Bible's first "Amen". Notice what it agrees to:
A strong statement of agreement and consent. We first read of its use when a woman was suspected of being unfaithful to her husband and had to drink the bitter water. The priest spoke a curse that would fall on her if she was guilty, and the woman had to answer, "Amen, Amen." Numbers 5:22.
The curse sounds harsh when nothing has been proved. But an unproved suspicion does its own damage:
The camp was to be holy, because it was the dwelling place of God. If a man began to suspect his wife, that suspicion was not to be left to fester in his mind. It had to be tested, whether it rested on fact or on imagination. If it was true, judgment fell on the woman. If it was false, she went free, and the trial showed it.
No human court can settle a hidden sin. This trial could, and it worked both ways:
He wanted His people together to judge evil, and each one to judge himself. But even where there was only a suspicion of evil, with no evidence to be had, He Himself designed a trial that brought the truth fully to light. The guilty one had to drink death, and found it to be judgement. The faithful one drank death, and found it victory.
The cup itself carried a message, drawn from God's dwelling place:
The law of jealousy, for when a man suspected his wife of being unfaithful to him, is given in Numbers 5:11-31. The woman had to drink bitter water. It was made of "holy water" with dust from the floor of the tabernacle put into it. The dust pictures the Holy Spirit using the word to press on the conscience what death is, as God's judgement of sin. If she had been unfaithful, it would be a curse to her.
One writer sees the nation itself standing where this woman stood:
At last He brings His case against her by this trial. She acts like a hardened wife who dares to face the test while she knows her own guilt, and she defies divine justice. When Israel said, "His blood be on us and on our children!" it was like the woman's "Amen" to the curse spoken over her. But their confidence has been their shame.
The curse is not the end of her story:
The Lord she wronged will accept her again. She has been unfaithful, it is true, and the trial of jealousy proved it. She has said, "I will go after my lovers." But the Lord has also said, "I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy."
There is a lesson here for anyone who is suspected without cause:
It may be very painful for us to be suspected, but when we are, let us never resent it in the pride of our hearts... A restless urge to make excuses and deny the charge is always a sign of weakness at the least, and very often a sign of guilt. As a rule, the fiercer the denial, the more certain the guilt. ... Where the heart is willing for everything to be tested in God's presence, the Lord takes up the cause of the one suspected without cause, and makes everything flourish as never before.
- Suspicion — an unproved doubt was not to be buried or nursed; God gave a way to bring it into the open and settle it.
- Oath — the priest spoke the curse aloud first, so no woman drank in ignorance of what she was risking.
- Amen — her own word sealed it; the Bible's first "Amen" is a person agreeing to be judged by God.
- Water — the same cup meant judgment for the guilty and full vindication for the faithful.
- Nation — Israel stood where this woman stood and said her own "Amen" to the curse. The Lord still promises to betroth her in steadfast love.
and this water that bringeth the curse shall enter into thy bowels, to make the belly to swell, and the thigh to shrink. And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.
The woman stands before the LORD, the offering in her hands and the curse just spoken over her. Her one word answer — said twice — makes her a willing part of a trial she cannot control.
The word she speaks is the earliest recorded "Amen" in the Bible, and it is not spoken over a blessing.
It is a strong statement of agreement and consent. We first read of its use when a woman was thought to have been unfaithful to her husband and had to drink the bitter water. The priest spoke a curse that would fall on her if she was guilty, and the woman had to answer Amen, Amen. Num. 5:22.
The priest is not the judge here. He carries out the trial, and God gives the verdict.
However, this was not a matter even for the priest to judge. If they followed the procedure Scripture laid down, the whole matter was left in God's hand. He would make the woman's guilt or her innocence plain... Then the priest was to take holy water in an earthen vessel and mix dust with it from the tabernacle floor. The holy water speaks of life, but the dust speaks of death (Ps. 22:15). If there was no sin leading to death, God would give life; but guilt would lead to death.
The grain offering in her hand is stripped of everything that would normally accompany one, and each omission is deliberate.
With the wife suspected of adultery, no actual defilement or sin is in view, only the suspicion of it... The offering was not fine flour, as in the grain offering, but barley meal, which was coarser. It had no leaven mixed in, for that would have implied the guilt of the accused woman before the test. It had no oil or frankincense on it either, since no joy and worship could go with this offering of jealousy.
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The same drink is handed to the guilty and the innocent alike. What separates them is not the cup but what is already true of them.
He wanted His people as a whole to judge evil, and each of them to judge themselves. But where evil was only suspected, with no evidence to be had, He Himself designed a test that brought the truth fully to light. The guilty one had to drink death, and found it to be judgment. The faithful one drank death, and found it victory.
Saying "Amen" to a curse aimed at yourself is the opposite of self-defence. William Kelly turns that into advice for anyone under suspicion.
It may be very painful for us to be suspected, but when we are, let us never resent it in the pride of our hearts... A restless urge to explain away and deny is always a sign of weakness at the least, and very often a sign of guilt. As a rule, the fiercer the denial, the more certain the guilt... It is very evident a dead man does not resent an injury. It is the bringing in the practical power of death into the soul which enables one then to bear it.
Bellett reads the trial as a picture of Israel. She was a nation married to the LORD long ago, and later brought to trial.
He had the right to bring her to this trial, for long ago He had married her (Jer. 31:32)... Again and again after the marriage He was provoked to jealousy. But He held back and was patient, calling over and over for repentance and confession... "His blood be upon us and upon our children," from the lips of Israel, was like the woman's "Amen" to the calling down of the curse. But their confidence has been their shame.
- Amen begins here. The Bible's first recorded "Amen" agrees with a curse, not a promise. The word accepts God's verdict before you know what it will be.
- Amen surrenders the case. The priest could not decide guilt. Saying "Amen" put the whole matter in God's hand, and He alone makes guilt or innocence plain.
- Amen refuses comfort. No oil, no frankincense, coarse barley meal, no leaven — nothing joyful, and nothing that would pre-judge her before the test.
- Amen splits the outcome. Guilty and innocent drink the same water. One finds judgment in it. The other is vindicated and finds victory.
- Amen is asked of you. When suspicion falls, the loud denial often marks the guilt. Taking the place of death lets you bear the charge without resentment.
And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and shall blot them out with the bitter water,
The priest does not only speak the curses over the suspected wife. He writes them down, then washes them off the page into the water she must drink. She drinks the very words she agreed to with her "Amen." Commentators read the scene as a test of one woman's faithfulness, and as a picture of a whole nation's.
The writing and washing come at the end of a careful sequence:
Then the priest held a vessel of holy water — water taken from the bronze basin — mixed with dust. The dust was the sign of the curse, the fruit of sin (Genesis 3:19). He put the woman under oath and read her the curses that would come on her if she were guilty. If she chose to stand the trial after all this warning, she said, "Amen, Amen." Then the priest wrote the curses in a book, blotted them out with some of the bitter water, and gave the rest of it to the woman to drink. The trial was then made. If she had been unfaithful, the water would enter her and turn bitter… and she would be made a curse among the people. But if her husband's suspicions had wronged her, none of these things would happen to her. The curses in the book would all be blotted out, so that they could be read no more. Freed and avenged, she would receive strength from the Lord to conceive a child.
Each of the two ingredients in the cup carries a meaning:
It seems to me that the dust of the tabernacle was the power of death in God's presence. It was fatal to the natural man, but precious, as the death of sin, for the one who has life. The water is the power of the Holy Spirit acting by the word on the conscience.
The severity of the ordeal served the innocent too:
The suspected one had to undergo a process so searching that only the faithful one could endure it. If there was a trace of guilt, the bitter water could search down into the very depths of the soul and bring it right out. There was no escape for the guilty one. And because no escape was possible, the vindication of the innocent was all the more triumphant. The same process that declared the guilt of the guilty made the innocence of the faithful clear.
Several writers apply the ordinance to Israel as the wife of the Lord. One matches Israel's own words to the woman's "Amen":
He had the right to bring her up for this trial, for He had married her long ago (Jeremiah 31:32)… Again and again after the marriage she provoked Him to jealousy. But He held back and was patient, calling again and again for repentance and confession… At last He pleads with her by this ordeal. And she defies divine justice, like any hardened wife who would dare to stand the trial knowing her own sin. "His blood be on us and on our children," from the lips of Israel, was like the woman's "Amen" to the calling down of the curse.
The curse washed into the cup is not God's last word:
She has been unfaithful, it is true, and the trial of jealousy has found her so. She has said, "I will go after my lovers." But the Lord has also said, "I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy" (see Hosea 2, 3). And when this happens, the very blessing promised to the wife who stood acquitted in the trial of jealousy will be Israel's.
The ordinance also has a use for anyone under a cloud of suspicion today:
It may be very painful when others suspect us. But let us never resent it in the pride of our hearts… This is where the water of death comes in. What meets everything so well as taking the place of death to all that is here below? Clearly, a dead man does not resent an injury… let us humble ourselves and take the bitter water, as it were.
- Written — the priest wrote the curses in a book, washed them off into the water, and gave the cup to the woman to drink.
- Searching — the water pictures the Spirit using the word on the conscience. The dust pictures death in God's presence. Together they leave the guilty no way out.
- Vindicating — the same test that exposed guilt cleared the innocent completely. An honest woman had nothing to fear from it.
- National — commentators apply the ordeal to Israel as the Lord's wife. Her cry, "His blood be on us and on our children," answered the woman's "Amen."
- Merciful — commentators hold out the acquitted wife's blessing as Israel's future. The cup of bitterness is not the end of the story.
and he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that bringeth the curse, that the water that bringeth the curse may enter into her for bitterness.
This verse is the turning point of the ordeal: after the oath, the writing, and the offering, the accused wife drinks the water. Everything now depends on God alone — on what the water does once it is inside her.
The drinking belongs to the last of the three sections of Numbers 5. This ordinance comes after open defilement and after confessed wrongdoing. Its subject is far less definite than either.
The third and last section of our chapter teaches us a most solemn lesson. We can look at it either as part of God's dealings with His people or as a moral lesson. It contains the record of the great ordinance designed for the trial of jealousy. Its place here is remarkable. In the first section, we have the corporate judgement of evil. In the second, we have individual self-judgement, confession, and restitution. In the third, we learn that God cannot endure even the mere suspicion of evil.
The drink was not poison. Writers explain its two ingredients and what each one stands for.
The priest took holy water in an earthen vessel and the dust of the tabernacle floor and put it into the water. This also has a symbolic meaning. The water stands for the Word, and the dust stands for death and the curse. It was a most solemn ceremony of a searching nature. The innocent one had nothing to fear; for her, drinking the bitter water that brings the curse only ended in vindication. The LORD found out the guilty one, and the curse rested upon her.
One detail explains why the same cup could act in two ways.
The priest wrote the curses in a book, blotted them with some of the bitter water, and gave the rest of it to the woman to drink. The trial was then made. If she had been unfaithful, the water would enter into her and become bitter. Her belly would swell and her thigh rot. She would become a curse among her people. But if her husband's suspicions had wronged her, none of these things would happen. The curses in the book would all be blotted out, so that no one could read them again. Set free and vindicated, she would receive strength from the Lord to have a child.
The cup does not create guilt; it reveals it. Writers see here the Spirit of God applying death to what is hidden. For the one with nothing to hide, the same act does no harm.
The Holy Spirit judges in this way, according to the sentence of death against the flesh. His power makes the hidden unfaithfulness plain. It brings down the chastening and the curse upon the unfaithful one, and this by the just judgment of God. Drinking death, according to the power of the Spirit, is life to the soul… But if we are free from unfaithfulness, the result of the trial is only negative. It shows that the Spirit of holiness finds nothing to judge when He applies death according to the holiness of God.
The lesson reaches anyone who is under suspicion. The instinct is to protest; commentators urge the opposite.
Here we have this bringing in of the water of death. What meets everything so well as taking the place of death to all that is here below? It is very clear that a dead man does not resent an injury… Whatever it may be, let it take its course. Let us humble ourselves to have, as it were, bitter water given to us. Where the heart is willing for everything to be tested in the presence of God, the Lord takes up the cause of the one wrongly suspected, and makes all flourish as never before.
Commentators also read the ordinance as a picture of God's dealings with Israel. In this reading, Israel's own cry answers to the woman's "Amen."
At length He pleads with her by this ordeal. She defies divine justice, like any hardened wife who would dare to face the trial knowing her own sin. "His blood be upon us and on our children," from the lips of Israel, was like the woman's "Amen" to the curse. But their confidence has been their shame… The water entered in and did its deadly work.
- Cup — Holy water and dust from the tabernacle floor: the Word joined to death and the curse, mixed into one drink.
- Curse — The priest blotted the written curses into that water, so she swallowed the very sentence she had said "Amen" to.
- Exposure — The water invents nothing. It brings hidden unfaithfulness to light, and where nothing is hidden it finds nothing to judge.
- Willingness — The innocent had nothing to fear from the cup, so a tested heart can let the trial run instead of fighting every accusation.
- Nation — Commentators read the same trial of Israel as an unfaithful wife, who drank the curse she called down on herself.
And the priest shall take out of the woman's hand the oblation of jealousy, and shall wave the oblation before Jehovah, and shall present it at the altar.
A husband suspects his wife, and God will not leave him to settle it himself. He brings the case into the sanctuary, where the priest lifts the offering out of her hand and waves it before the LORD.
The recipe for this grain offering is unlike any other. What it leaves out says as much as what it contains.
The offering did not consist of fine flour, as the usual grain offering did, but of barley meal, which was coarser. It contained no leaven, for leaven would have implied the guilt of the accused woman before the test. It carried no oil or frankincense either. No joy and worship could go with this offering of jealousy.
Another writer reads these plain ingredients as a picture of the woman herself.
The barley meal is coarser and more common. It might well picture a life that no one could claim was very much in God's sight, yet a life not corrupted in the way charged. This, offered from the woman's hand, would indeed call for God's remembrance as to its truth or falsehood. The missing oil and frankincense may well speak of someone coming with a sad heart. This is not the joyful spirit of praise.
The waving is not a formality. It answers the exact charge the husband has made.
The charge against the woman was unfaithfulness to her husband. So the priest waved the offering — a tenth of an ephah of barley meal — before the Lord. Being set apart to her husband as his wife should mark her out. That is what the offering spoke of, and that is what her husband had charged her with violating.
The offering passes from her hand to the priest's. Neither husband nor wife settles this dispute.
The priest then put "the grain offering of jealousy" into her hand. Her husband had prepared it, in a way suited to her approach to God. The priest then took it from her hand, waved it before the Lord, and offered the memorial of it on the altar. This action showed that both the husband and the wife were committing the matter to God.
The verse ends at the altar, and the next verse burns a handful of the offering. One writer sees Christ in the waving and God's glory in the burning.
The waving of the offering speaks of Christ ascended to heaven after His death and resurrection. He is now in absolute authority, so that everything must be subject to Him. The portion burned tells us that God is to be glorified in this whole matter.
This trial comes last in a chapter that deals with evil in three stages.
In the first section, we have the corporate judgement of evil. In the second, we have individual self-judgement, confession, and restitution. In the third, we learn that God cannot endure even the mere suspicion of evil.
One writer turns the ceremony into a personal question: how do we react when someone suspects us?
It may be very painful for us to be suspected, but when we are, let us never resent it in the pride of our hearts... It is always a sign of weakness at the least, and very often of guilt, when there is a restless desire to explain away and deny. As a rule, the fiercer the denial, the more certain the guilt... Suppose the heart is willing to let everything be tested in God's presence, instead of pushing the accusation away out of pride. Then the Lord takes up the cause of the one suspected without reason, and makes everything flourish as never before.
One writer sees a larger story behind the trial: a nation charged by her own Husband.
Israel could not endure the searching trial of the bitter water. Her unfaithfulness is now plain. She has broken her vows. She has turned away from her Husband, the Holy One of Israel. He has poured out His burning jealousy on the faithless nation.
- Suspicion — God will not let even an unproven suspicion of evil sit in the camp.
- Stripped — coarse barley, no oil, no frankincense. Joy and worship are missing, because this is no thankful approach.
- Surrendered — the waved offering hands the whole case to God, for husband and wife alike.
- Searched — the burned portion says God is to be glorified in the outcome, whichever way it falls.
- Submitted — for us, a heart willing to be tested, not quick to protest. For Israel, a Husband whose burning jealousy fell on a faithless nation.
And the priest shall take a handful of the oblation as a memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar; and afterwards he shall make the woman drink the water.
Numbers 5:26 sits at the close of a long ordinance for a husband who suspects his wife but cannot prove anything. Before she drinks the water that will settle the case, God receives His own portion on the altar. That small detail shapes the whole test.
The order matters. The priest burns the handful before the woman drinks, and one writer says the drinking named earlier in the chapter happens here:
The accused wife first swore an oath of innocence and heard the warning about lying. Then the priest would take the grain offering from her and wave it before the Lord. Then he would take from it a handful as a memorial portion to burn on the altar (vv. 25-26). The portion burned tells us that God is to be glorified in this whole matter. Afterward the woman had to drink the bitter water. Verse 24 mentioned this, but it clearly took place after the burning of the Lord's portion.
The word translated "memorial portion" is rare. One writer traces where else it appears, starting with the meal offering:
In this offering the priest burned a handful of the flour, with all the frankincense, on the altar for a "memorial." That word is used only besides this of the very similar showbread (Lev. 24) and of the jealousy offering (Num. 5). A beautiful word in relation to this one perfect life on earth: will God ever forget it? Tried by the fire of God's holiness it was nothing but sweet fragrance.
Here, though, the memorial points the other way. Even the meal is not the usual fine flour:
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The offering was not made of fine flour like the meal offering. It used barley meal, which was coarser. It had no leaven in it, for that would have implied the guilt of the accused woman before the test. It had no oil or frankincense either. No joy or worship could go with this offering of jealousy.
Why holy water and dust from the tabernacle floor? One writer sees in them a picture of how God tests faithfulness:
If the faithfulness of Israel, the church, or an individual believer to God or to Christ is questioned, there must be a trial of it. It seems to me that the dust of the tabernacle was the power of death in God's presence. It was fatal to the natural man, but precious to the one who has life, since it means the death of sin. The water is the power of the Holy Spirit acting by the word on the conscience.
The chapter moves from open sin, to confessed wrong, to something far less tangible. Its placement is the point:
In the first section, we have the corporate judgement of evil. In the second, we have individual self-judgement, confession, and restitution. In the third, we learn that God cannot endure even the mere suspicion of evil.
No guilty woman could slip through this test. That was good news for a wife who had done nothing wrong:
There was no escape for the guilty one, and that very fact only made the vindication of the innocent more triumphant. The same process that declared the guilt of the guilty made clear the innocence of the faithful. To someone who is sure of his own integrity, the more searching the investigation, the more welcome it is.
The practical lesson is for the person under suspicion:
It may be very painful for us to be suspected, but when we are, let us never resent it in the pride of our hearts... It is always a sign of weakness at the least, and very often of guilt, when someone has a restless desire to explain away and deny. As a rule, the fiercer the denial, the more certain the guilt... Let us humble ourselves to have, as it were, bitter water given to us.
One writer applies the whole ordeal to Israel's own history:
In Psalm 109 the Lord appears as the one who had brought Israel to this trial, and by it found her guilty. He pleads with her through this ordeal. She defies divine justice, like any hardened wife who would dare to face the trial with the knowledge of her sin... But their confidence has been their shame.
Yet the same writer refuses to stop at the verdict:
There is forgiveness with the Lord for Israel... And when that day comes, Israel will have the very blessing promised to the wife who stood acquitted in the trial of jealousy.
- Altar first. The handful burns before the woman drinks. God is glorified first, and the verdict comes second.
- Memorial. The word appears only with the meal offering, the showbread, and this one. Here there is no oil and no frankincense, because there is no joy in it.
- Water and dust. The water pictures the Spirit pressing the word on the conscience. The dust pictures death in God's presence.
- Searching, therefore safe. The same process that traps the guilty clears the innocent. The deeper the search, the fuller the vindication.
- Drink it willingly. Do not resent suspicion. Let God test everything. Israel failed this trial, yet forgiveness and blessing are still promised to her.