Numbers 5 - Introduction
_THE LEPROUS AND UNCLEAN ARE COMMANDED TO BE PUT OUT OF THE CAMP: RESTITUTION IS ENJOINED: THE TRIAL OF JEALOUSY._ _Before Christ 1490._... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE LEPROUS AND UNCLEAN ARE COMMANDED TO BE PUT OUT OF THE CAMP: RESTITUTION IS ENJOINED: THE TRIAL OF JEALOUSY._ _Before Christ 1490._... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT THEY PUT OUT OF THE CAMP— Le Clerc conjectures, that the camp of each tribe had some vacant space left, which was reckoned _without the camp,_ and that here the unclean were lodged by themselves; for that they were banished quite beyond the bounds of all the tents, at a great distance from all... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN A MAN OR WOMAN SHALL COMMIT, &C.— _Shall do any manner of wrong to any man, trespassing therein withal against the Lord, and the person is found guilty._ Some think that the clause, _and that person be guilty,_ should rather be rendered, _shall be sensible of his guilt:_ and Calmet judiciously... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN THEY SHALL CONFESS THEIR SIN WHICH THEY HAVE DONE— _Then he shall confess the wrong he hath done._ REFLECTIONS.—We have here, 1. The separation of the unclean from the camp and tabernacle till the cause of it was removed. _Note;_ (1.) God's church and people must have no fellowship with the u... [ Continue Reading ]
_NUMBERS 5:12_, &C.— This, says Calmet, is one of the most singular of the laws of Moses; and one which strongly marks out the grossness and obduracy of the Israelites. A husband, who had just suspicions of the fidelity of his wife, though he could bring no sufficient proof of it before the judges,... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL BRING HER OFFERING FOR HER— This offering was to be of a mean sort, unaccompanied either with oil or frankincense, to denote the mean and humble circumstances of the person on whose account it was offered. See Leviticus 5:11. The phrase at the close of this verse, _an offering of memorial,... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE PRIEST, SHALL BRING HER NEAR, AND SET HER, &C.— Read, _shall bring it near, and set it,_ &c. see Numbers 5:18. The _holy water,_ in the next verse, means the water from the laver, which is called _holy,_ as being appropriated to the use of the sanctuary. _Dust_ was to be used as expressive o... [ Continue Reading ]
UNCOVER THE WOMAN'S HEAD, &C.— The priest was first to take off the woman's head-attire that she might appear as a mourner; see Leviticus 21. 10 and as the covering of the head betokens the woman's subjection and chastity, 1 Corinthians 11:10 it was fitly taken away, says Bishop Kidder, as a sign th... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PRIEST SHALL CHARGE HER BY AN OATH, &C.— These two verses, and the two following, contain a species or formula of summons or adjuration, which the priest tendered to the person accused: a form, which was always expressed in the vulgar tongue, even when the Hebrew language ceased, as Maimonides h... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD MAKE THEE A CURSE, &C.— i.e. The Lord make thee such an object of his malediction, and such a dreadful monument of his vengeance, that men may make thy case a model of imprecation; saying, If I swear falsely, may I be as accursed as such a woman! see Calmet. The former part of this verse se... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE WOMAN SHALL SAY, AMEN, AMEN.— If the woman, after this adjuration, persisted in pleading not guilty, she was to pronounce _amen,_ or _so be it,_ doubled, to express her hearty consent that it might be as the priest, in the name of God, had declared. If the woman acknowledged her guilt, she w... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PRIEST SHALL WRITE THESE CURSES IN A BOOK, &C.— The Jews call every scroll, whereon any thing is written, ספר _sepher,_ a _book;_ and the rabbis tell us, that these maledictions were written upon vellum or parchment: but Calmet observes, that it is far from certain that parchment was used for wr... [ Continue Reading ]
AND BECOME BITTER— _And become_ is not in the Hebrew: the word is למרים _lemarim,—in amaritudinem,—for bitterness;_ and by a comparison of the 27th verse, it appears that this alteration in the phrase is used as referring to the case of guilt. Very many and extraordinary are the effects which the wo... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS IS THE LAW OF JEALOUSIES— Grotius remarks justly, that "it is not to be wondered if God, among his own people, produced a miraculous effect for the detection of a crime most heinous, and very difficult to be proved. Indeed, history abounds with examples of the direful effects of jealousy, not o... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SHALL THE MAN BE GUILTLESS FROM INIQUITY— i.e. The man, by taking this method to find out the truth, shall clear himself from the guilt of harbouring unwarrantable jealousy: nor shall he be deemed punishable for thus prosecuting and trying the wife who gives him occasion of jealousy, whether sh... [ Continue Reading ]