The Sotah and the Jealous Husband
Numbers 5:11-31
11 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 12 Speak to the people of Israel, and say to them, If any man’s wife goes astray, and commits a trespass against him, 13 And a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and this is kept undetected, and she is defiled, and there is no witness against her, since she was not caught in the act; 14 And the spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she is defiled; or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she is not defiled;
16 And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord; 17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen utensil; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water; 18 And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and loosen the hair of the woman’s head,
Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say to the woman, The Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh fall away, and your belly swell; 22 And this water that causes the curse shall go into your bowels, to make your belly swell, and your thigh to fall away; And the woman shall say, Amen, amen. 23 And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water; 24 And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causes the curse; and the water that causes the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter.
And if the woman is not defiled, but is clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. 29 This is the Torah of jealousies, when a wife goes astray with another instead of her husband, and is defiled; 30 Or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he is jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute upon her all this Torah. 31 Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.
Used with permission of the Davka Corporation.
