Numbers 5:11-31

The Ordeal of Jealousy.

Though in its present form a late priestly composition this section is evidently based upon very ancient material. Its contents find no parallel in the other Pentateuchal codes; but the custom of trial by ordeal was a very ancient feature in Israelite life, as it was in the life of many other nations, and it still has a wide prevalence, especially in Africa. The forms of ordeal differ greatly drinking a potion (as here), being thrown into water (as in the case of suspected witches in the middle ages in Europe), walking upon heated metal, or holding it in the hand, or very frequently invoking upon oneself a curse which will come true in the event of guilt. The latter, as well as the potion, forms part of the ordeal in the present passage1 [Note: References to ordeals in other nations are given in Gray's Numbers, pp. 44 f.]. Another Biblical instance of an ordeal appears in the story of Korah (Numbers 16:16-18), and the practice perhaps underlies Psalms 109:18; Proverbs 6:27 f. The essential element in all cases is that the accused is subjected to a test, the visible results of which will be a conclusive divine sentence of innocence or guilt.

In the present instance a woman is suspected of adultery which cannot be legally proved, and her husband's jealousy is roused. He brings her to the priest with an accompanying offering of flour. The priest places her -before Jehovah," and after dictating a curse upon herself which the woman endorses by responding -Amen, Amen," he causes her to drink a potion, consisting of holy water with two added ingredients dust from the floor of the Tabernacle, and the written words of the curse which have been washed off into the water. If she is guilty of the charge, the potion will have a harmful effect upon her body which will prevent her being delivered of a child, but if she is innocent it will do her no harm and she will conceive seed.