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Numbers 5:20

in Numbers 5

But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority and have defiled yourself and lain carnally with a man other than your husband’—

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

But if thou have gone aside, being under thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee besides thy husband:

KJV

But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband:

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This verse in Numbers 5

Commentary

3 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

And he is to put the woman under oath

on Numbers 5:19-20

The oath comes in two halves, and the acquittal comes first: “may you be immune to this bitter water that brings a curse”. The priest speaks and the woman listens, and her own words wait until verse 22.

This site's exposition

lain carnally with a man other than your husband

The guilty half of the oath breaks off here, and verse 21 steps in with the priest's curse before the words resume. Matthew Henry reasons that a guilty woman who heard this and still drank had chosen to defy God's justice over confessing. The sentence is finished by the curse.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband,.... Gone aside from the paths of modesty and chastity, and betook herself to another man's bed instead of her husband's: and if thou be defiled, by committing adultery: and some man hath lain with thee beside thy husband; these phrases are all synonymous, and a heap of words are made use of to express the sin, and that there might be no evasion of it, and that it might be clear what was intended, this being said on oath.

The words behind it

14 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.

  • וְאַ֗תְּand you

    veatH859 →1094 times

  • כִּ֥יif

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • שָׂטִ֛יתyou have turned aside

    satitH7847 →6 times

  • תַּ֥חַתunder

    tachatH8478 →505 times

  • אִישֵׁ֖ךְhusband your

    ʾishekhH376 →1663 times

  • וְכִ֣יand if

    vekhiH3588 →4482 times

  • נִטְמֵ֑אתyou have made yourself unclean

    nitmetH2930 →162 times

  • וַיִּתֵּ֨ןand he has given

    vaiyitenH5414 →2011 times

  • אִ֥ישׁa man

    ʾishH376 →1663 times

  • בָּךְ֙in <the> you

    bokh

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • שְׁכָבְתּ֔וֹcopulation his

    shekhavetoH7903 →

  • מִֽבַּלְעֲדֵ֖יfrom except

    mibaladeiH1107 →

  • אִישֵֽׁךְ׃husband your

    ʾishekhH376 →1663 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

2 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

    Numbers 5:12

    “Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him

    it leads to

    • Numbers 5:19–20

      And he is to put the woman under oath and say to her, ‘If no other man has slept with you and you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband’s…

    • Proverbs 2:16–17

      It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words

Where this verse is studied

About Numbers

The Brazen Serpent, Anthony van Dyck, 1618 to 1620. Public domain.
The Brazen Serpent, Anthony van Dyck, 1618 to 1620. Public domain.
Numbers: the study guide →Read Numbers 5 →

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

Read on in Numbers 5 →