Skip to content
mannafest.faith

Numbers 5:31

in Numbers 5

The husband will be free from guilt, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And the man shall be free from iniquity, and that woman shall bear her iniquity.

KJV

Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.

This verse in Numbers 5

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

Whereas now, whatsoever the consequence is, the husband shall not be censured for bringing such curses upon her, or for defaming her, if she appear to be innocent. Her iniquity - That is, the punishment of her iniquity, whether she was false to her husband, or by any light carriage gave him occasion to suspect her.

This site's exposition

This is the law of jealousy

on Numbers 5:29-31

Adam Clarke calls this the most singular law in the Pentateuch and notes that many nations tried the accused by fire, poison or water. Israel’s trial carries no bodily hazard, since the woman swallows only water, dust and ink.

This site's exposition

the woman shall bear her iniquity

Adam Clarke reads her iniquity as the penalty named at verse 22, the swelling and the wasting. John Wesley widens it to a wife whose careless conduct gave her husband cause for suspicion. The husband stood cleared whatever the outcome.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

This woman shall bear her iniquity - That is, her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot; see Num 5:22 (note).

The words behind it

8 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.

  • וְנִקָּ֥הand he will be free

    venikahH5352 →44 times

  • הָאִ֖ישׁthe man

    haishH376 →1663 times

  • מֵעָוֹ֑ןfrom iniquity

    meavonH5771 →233 times

  • וְהָאִשָּׁ֣הand the woman

    vehaishahH802 →781 times

  • הַהִ֔וא<the> that

    hahiv'H1931 →1879 times

  • תִּשָּׂ֖אshe will bear

    tisa'H5375 →656 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • עֲוֹנָֽהּ׃ פiniquity her

    ʾavonahH5771 →233 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

    Ezekiel 18:4

    Behold, every soul belongs to Me; both father and son are Mine. The soul who sins is the one who will die.

    it leads to

    • Ezekiel 18:20

      The soul who sins is the one who will die. A son will not bear the iniquity of his father, and a father will not bear the iniquity of his son. The righteousness of…

    • Romans 6:23

      For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

    • Numbers 16:22

      But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with the whole congregation?”

    • Hebrews 12:9

      Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live?

    • Galatians 3:10–13

      All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

  • Through

    Leviticus 20:10

    If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.

    it leads to

    • John 8:4–5

      and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.

    • Deuteronomy 22:22–24

      If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

  • Through

    Numbers 9:13

    But if a man who is ceremonially clean and is not on a journey still fails to observe the Passover, he must be cut off from his people, because he did not present the…

    it leads to

    • Exodus 12:15

      For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be…

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.

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