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Numbers 5:24

in Numbers 5

He is to have the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and it will enter her and cause her bitter suffering.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

and he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that causeth the curse; and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her and become bitter.

KJV

And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter.

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This verse in Numbers 5

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

The bitter water that causeth the curse - Though the rabbins think that the priest put some bitter substance in the water, yet as nothing of the kind is intimated by Moses, we may consider the word as used here metaphorically for affliction, death, etc. These waters were afflicting and deadly to her who drank them, being guilty. In this sense afflictions are said to be bitter, Isa 38:17; so also is death, 1Sa 15:32: Ecc 7:26.

This site's exposition

And the priest shall write these curses in a book

on Numbers 5:23-24

The curses are written out and then washed off the page into the water she drinks, so the words go into her in their own ink. Adam Clarke reports the rabbinic view that the ink was mixed without any iron in it, which would let the writing lift clean off the parchment. Blot enters Scripture at Exodus 32:32-33, where Moses asks to be blotted out of God's book and God answers that he blots out the man who sinned, and here what gets blotted out is the curse. Matthew Henry holds that the water carried the curse only where there was guilt, since verse 24 has it becoming bitter after it enters her.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse,.....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Thus sin is called an evil thing and a bitter for the same reason, because it causeth the curse, Jer. ii. If she had been guilty (and otherwise it did not cause the curse), she was made to know that though her stolen waters had been sweet, and her bread eaten in secret pleasant, yet the end was bitter as wormwood, Prov. ix.

The words behind it

12 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.

  • וְהִשְׁקָה֙and he will make drink

    vehishkahH8248 →61 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הָ֣אִשָּׁ֔הthe woman

    haishahH802 →781 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • מֵ֥י[the] waters of

    meiH4325 →581 times

  • הַמָּרִ֖ים<the> bitter [things]

    hamarimH4751 →37 times

  • הַמְאָֽרֲרִ֑יםwhich bring a curse

    hamararimH779 →63 times

  • וּבָ֥אוּand they will go

    uvauH935 →2568 times

  • בָ֛הּin <the> her

    vah

  • הַמַּ֥יִםthe waters

    hamayimH4325 →581 times

  • הַֽמְאָרֲרִ֖יםwhich bring a curse

    hamararimH779 →63 times

  • לְמָרִֽים׃to bitter [things]

    lemarimH4751 →37 times

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

Related verses

2 in all, six open

The walk

5 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

    Malachi 3:5

    “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud…

    it leads to

    • James 5:8–9

      You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.

    • Hebrews 13:4

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

    • Deuteronomy 5:11

      You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain.

    • James 5:4

      Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

    • Deuteronomy 27:19

      ‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Where this verse is studied

On this page

Studies1

About Numbers

The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Numbers: the study guide →Read Numbers 5 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Numbers 5 →