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:
after_note: DELETE
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.
And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, if she have been defiled, and have committed unfaithfulness against her husband, that the water that bringeth the curse shall enter into her, for bitterness, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall shrink; and the woman shall become a curse among her people.
This verse gives the verdict in a strange and solemn ceremony: a wife suspected of unfaithfulness drinks water mixed with dust, and God Himself settles the case. Why would God ever order a trial like this?
One writer describes the scene and what went into the cup:
This ordinance was for uncovering unfaithfulness that had never been confessed. The high priest set the suspected wife in the presence of God as the Searcher of hearts... He then held a vessel of holy water, or 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 to her the curses that would come upon her if she were guilty. To this, if she chose to stand the trial after all this warning, she said, "Amen, Amen."
The trial aimed at certainty, not cruelty. The very thing that trapped the guilty is what cleared the innocent:
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 fully out. There was no escape for the guilty one. And we may say this: the very fact that the guilty could not possibly escape only made the clearing of the innocent more triumphant.
Both women drank the same cup. The difference was inside them:
The guilty one had to drink death, and found it to be judgement. The faithful one drank death, and found it victory.
One writer ties this law to the holiness of the camp where God lived among His people:
The camp was to be holy, for God lived there. If a man began to feel jealous about his wife, that jealousy was not to be left to fester. It had to be tested, whether it rested on fact or on imagination.
One writer spells out what those signs meant, and what their absence meant:
If she was guilty, the Lord would expose it by making her thigh rot and her belly swell. What came of that we are not told, but the stigma of a curse would be on her in the eyes of the people. If these symptoms did not follow, then she was fully cleared (v.28). In a case like this, we may well suppose that the husband should apologise to her for his suspicions.
One writer reads this ordinance as a picture of God's dealings with Israel, whom He married long ago. He traces the parallel down to the crowd's cry at the trial of Jesus:
He was entitled to bring her up for this trial, for He had married her long ago (Jer. 31:32)... At last He pleads with her through this ordeal. She defies divine justice, like a hardened wife who would dare to stand the trial while she knows 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. But their confidence has been their shame... The water entered in and did its deadly work.
The same writer does not stop at the verdict:
There is forgiveness with the Lord for Israel... 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."
One writer applies this ordeal to anyone under suspicion:
When we are suspected, let us never resent it in the pride of our hearts. It is always a sign of weakness at the very 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... Let us humble ourselves and take the bitter water, as it were. We should not refuse the test, or push back a hint of accusation out of pride. Where the heart is willing for everything to be tested before God, the Lord takes up the cause of the one suspected without reason. He makes everything flourish as never before.
- Dust — the priest mixed holy water with dust, the sign of the curse and the fruit of sin, and put the woman under oath.
- Search — the trial dug so deep that guilt had nowhere to hide; when we let God test us in the same way, He takes up our cause.
- Same cup — both women drank death. The guilty found judgment; the faithful found victory and a full public clearing.
- Nation — one writer applies the picture to Israel: God tried her as a wife and found her unfaithful, and her cry at the cross answered the woman's "Amen."
- Mercy — the verdict is not the last word: God promises to betroth the unfaithful one to Himself again in righteousness and steadfast love.