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Numbers 5:18

in Numbers 5

After the priest has the woman stand before the LORD, he is to let down her hair and place in her hands the grain offering of memorial, which is the grain offering for jealousy. The priest is to hold the bitter water that brings a curse.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And the priest shall set the woman before Jehovah, and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose, and put the meal-offering of memorial in her hands, which is the meal-offering of jealousy: and the priest shall have in his hand the water of bitterness that causeth the curse.

KJV

And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse:

This verse in Numbers 5

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Uncover the woman’s head - To take off a woman’s veil, and expose her to the sight of men, would be considered a very great degradation in the East. To this St. Paul appears to allude, 1Co 11:5, 1Co 11:6,1Co 11:10.

This site's exposition

And the priest shall bring her near

on Numbers 5:16-18

Three things are put in place before a word is spoken. Holy water goes into an earthen vessel, a phrase that occurs nowhere else in Scripture, and dust off the tabernacle floor is put into it. The text gives no reason for the dust; Adam Clarke suggests the baseness of the crime, and John Gill reports the rabbinic measure of half a log and the ruling that the vessel had never been used before. Her head is uncovered in front of the sanctuary, which Clarke reads as a public degradation and connects with Paul's argument at 1 Corinthians 11:5-6.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

Before the Lord - Before the tabernacle with her face towards the ark. Uncover her head - Partly that she might be made sensible how manifest she and all her ways were to God; partly in token of her sorrow for her sin, or at least for any cause of suspicion which she had given.
And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord,....

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

מים קדשים HOLY WATER — i.e., water that has become holy through being in the laver. — The water was taken from the laver because that was made of the copper mirrors of the women who had gathered (Exodus:8) [at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting] and this woman deviated from their chaste ways. Because they had cherished their husbands’ love in Egypt (cf.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Numbers 5:17:1, via Sefaria, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

25 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְהֶעֱמִ֨ידand he will make stand

    veheemidH5975521 times

  • הַכֹּהֵ֥ןthe priest

    hakohenH3548750 times

  • אֶֽת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • הָאִשָּׁה֮the woman

    haishahH802781 times

  • לִפְנֵ֣י<to> before

    lifneiH64402123 times

  • יְהוָה֒Yahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

  • וּפָרַע֙and he will let loose

    ufara'H6544

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • רֹ֣אשׁ[the] head of

    roshH7218599 times

  • הָֽאִשָּׁ֔הthe woman

    haishahH802781 times

  • וְנָתַ֣ןand he will put

    venatanH54142011 times

  • עַל־on

    ʾal-H59215755 times

  • כַּפֶּ֗יהָhands her

    kapeihaH3709192 times

  • אֵ֚ת<obj.>

    ʾetH85310935 times

  • מִנְחַ֣ת[the] grain offering of

    minchatH4503211 times

  • הַזִּכָּר֔וֹן<the> remembrance

    hazikaronH214624 times

  • מִנְחַ֥ת[is] a grain offering of

    minchatH4503211 times

  • קְנָאֹ֖תjealousi<es>

    kenaotH706843 times

  • הִ֑ואit

    hi'H19311879 times

  • וּבְיַ֤דand in [the] hand of

    uveyadH30271618 times

  • הַכֹּהֵן֙the priest

    hakohenH3548750 times

  • יִהְי֔וּthey will be

    yihyuH19613559 times

  • מֵ֥י[the] waters of

    meiH4325581 times

  • הַמָּרִ֖ים<the> bitter [things]

    hamarimH475137 times

  • הַמְאָֽרֲרִֽים׃which bring a curse

    hamararimH77963 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Hebrews 13:4

    Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

    it leads to

    • Genesis 2:24

      For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

    • Proverbs 5:15–23

      Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.

    • 1 Corinthians 7:2–16

      But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.

    • Galatians 5:19

      The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;

    • Genesis 1:27–28

      So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 29:18

    Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure…

    it leads to

    • Hebrews 12:15

      See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many.

    • Deuteronomy 11:16–17

      But be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside to worship and bow down to other gods,

  • Through

    Proverbs 5:4

    in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.

    it leads to

    • Ecclesiastes 7:26

      And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is…

Where this verse is studied

On this page

About Numbers

The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament.