Numbers 5:12

Good News Translation

to give the Israelites the following instructions. It may happen that a man becomes suspicious that his wife is unfaithful to him and has defiled herself by having intercourse with another man. But the husband may not be certain, for his wife may have kept it secret—there was no witness, and she was not caught in the act. Or it may happen that a husband becomes suspicious of his wife, even though she has not been unfaithful.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
"Speak to the children of Yisra'el, and tell them: If any man's wife goes astray, and is unfaithful to him,

King James Version
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him,

Lexham English Bible
"Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘If any man's wife goes astray and acts unfaithfully to him,

New Century Version
"Tell the Israelites: ‘A man's wife might be unfaithful to him

New English Translation
"Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘If any man's wife goes astray and behaves unfaithfully toward him,

Amplified Bible
"Speak to the Israelites and say to them, 'If any man's wife goes astray (deviates) and is unfaithful to him,

New American Standard Bible
"Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'If any man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him,

Geneva Bible (1587)
Speake vnto the children of Israel, and say vnto them, If any mans wife turne to euill, and commit a trespasse against him,

Legacy Standard Bible
"Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘If any man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him,

Contemporary English Version
to say to the people of Israel: Suppose a man becomes jealous and suspects that his wife has been unfaithful, but he has no proof.

Complete Jewish Bible
"Tell the people of Isra'el, ‘If a man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him;

Darby Translation
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man's wife go astray, and commit unfaithfulness against him,

Easy-to-Read Version
"Tell the Israelites this: A man's wife might be unfaithful to him.

English Standard Version
"Speak to the people of Israel, If any man's wife goes astray and breaks faith with him,

George Lamsa Translation
Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, If any mans wife does wrong, and commits a trespass against him,

Christian Standard Bible®
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: If any man’s wife goes astray, is unfaithful to him,

Literal Translation
Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them, When any man's wife goes astray, and has committed a trespass against him,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Speake to the children of Israel, and saye vnto them: Whan eny mans wife goth asyde, and trespaceth agaynst him,

American Standard Version
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him,

Bible in Basic English
Say to the children of Israel, If any man's wife does wrong, sinning against him

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Speake vnto the children of Israel, and say vnto them: If any mans wyfe go aside, and trespasse agaynst hym,

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: If any man's wife go aside, and act unfaithfully against him,

King James Version (1611)
Speake vnto the children of Israel, and say vnto them, If any mans wife goe aside, and commit a trespasse against him;

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them, Whosesoever wife shall transgress against him, and slight and despise him,

English Revised Version
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him,

Berean Standard Bible
"Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if any man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and seide, Speke thou to the sones of Israel, and thou schalt seie to hem, If `the wijf of a man hath errid, and hath dispisid the hosebonde,

Young's Literal Translation
`Speak unto the sons of Israel, and thou hast said unto them, When any man's wife turneth aside, and hath committed against him a trespass,

Update Bible Version
Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, If any man's wife goes aside, and commits a trespass against him,

Webster's Bible Translation
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, If any man's wife shall go astray, and commit a trespass against him,

World English Bible
"Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them: If any man's wife goes astray, and is unfaithful to him,

New King James Version
"Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: "If any man's wife goes astray and behaves unfaithfully toward him,

New Living Translation
"Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. "Suppose a man's wife goes astray, and she is unfaithful to her husband

New Life Bible
"Say to the people of Israel, ‘If a man's wife turns away and is not faithful to him,

New Revised Standard
Speak to the Israelites and say to them: If any man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him,

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Speak unto the sons of Israel, and thou shalt say unto them, - When any man's wife, shall turn aside, and commit against him an act of unfaithfulness;

Douay-Rheims Bible
Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: The man whose wife shall have gone astray, and contemning her husband,

Revised Standard Version
"Say to the people of Israel, If any man's wife goes astray and acts unfaithfully against him,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'If any man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him,

Contextual Overview

¹¹ The Lord commanded Moses ¹²to give the Israelites the following instructions. It may happen that a man becomes suspicious that his wife is unfaithful to him and has defiled herself by having intercourse with another man. But the husband may not be certain, for his wife may have kept it secret—there was no witness, and she was not caught in the act. Or it may happen that a husband becomes suspicious of his wife, even though she has not been unfaithful. ¹⁵ In either case the man shall take his wife to the priest. He shall also take the required offering of two pounds of barley flour, but he shall not pour any olive oil on it or put any incense on it, because it is an offering from a suspicious husband, made to bring the truth to light. ¹⁶ The priest shall bring the woman forward and have her stand in front of the altar. ¹⁷ He shall pour some holy water into a clay bowl and take some of the earth that is on the floor of the Tent of the Lord 's presence and put it in the water to make it bitter. ¹⁸ Then he shall loosen the woman's hair and put the offering of flour in her hands. In his hands the priest shall hold the bowl containing the bitter water that brings a curse. ¹⁹ Then the priest shall make the woman agree to this oath spoken by the priest: "If you have not committed adultery, you will not be harmed by the curse that this water brings. ²⁰ But if you have committed adultery, ²¹ may the Lord make your name a curse among your people. May he cause your genital organs to shrink and your stomach to swell up. ²² May this water enter your stomach and cause it to swell up and your genital organs to shrink." The woman shall respond, "I agree; may the Lord do so."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Numbers 5:19, Numbers 5:20, Proverbs 2:16, Proverbs 2:17

Reciprocal: Numbers 5:29 - when a wife goeth

Cross-References

Luke 3:37
the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Kenan,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,.... It being an affair which concerned them:

if any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him; the sin of adultery, which is a going aside out of the way of virtue and chastity, and a trespass against an husband, a breach of the marriage covenant with him, a defiling his bed, doing an injury and dishonour to him, bringing confusion into his family, and a spurious offspring to possess his substance: though this is to be understood, not of certain adultery, of which there is plain and full proof, for then there would be no occasion of such a trial, as is afterwards directed to; besides, her husband, in such a case, might put her away, and even, according to the law, she was to be put to death, Leviticus 20:10; but of her having committed it in the opinion of her husband, he having some ground of suspicion, though he could not be certain of it; and therefore, by this law, was allowed to make trial, that he might find it out, it at present only a suspected case, and a doubtful one; and the Jews k say,

"they never gave the waters drink but in a doubtful case:''

and so this may interpreted of her declining and departing from her husband's house, not keeping at home to mind the affairs of her family, but gadding abroad, and keeping company with another man, or other men; and that after she had been warned and charged by her husband to the contrary, and so had disobeyed him, and acted contrary to his will; and in that sense had committed a trespass, and so had given him suspicion of her unchastity, for which he might have some reason; if, as it is said in the Misnah l, he gave her an admonition before two witnesses, saying, have no talk with such a man, and yet she talks with him; or, as the commentators add m, be not secretly or in private with such an one, and yet goes into a private place with him, and stays so long with him that she may be defiled; this with them rendered her suspected.

k Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 9. fol. 195. 2. l Sotah, c. 1. sect. 1, 2. m Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Bava Kama, c. 9. sect. 11.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The trial of jealousy. Since the crime of adultery is especially defiling and destructive of the very foundations of social order, the whole subject is dealt with at a length proportionate to its importance. The process prescribed has lately been strikingly illustrated from an Egyptian “romance,” which refers to the time of Rameses the Great, and may therefore well serve to illustrate the manners and customs of the Mosaic times. This mode of trial, like several other ordinances, was adopted by Moses from existing and probably very ancient and widely spread institutions.

Numbers 5:15

The offering was to be of the cheapest and coarsest kind, barley (compare 2 Kings 7:1, 2 Kings 7:16, 2 Kings 7:18), representing the abused condition of the suspected woman. It was, like the sin-offering Leviticus 5:11, to be made without oil and frankincense, the symbols of grace and acceptableness. The woman herself stood with head uncovered Numbers 5:18, in token of her shame.

Numbers 5:17

The dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle - To set forth the fact that the water was endued with extraordinary power by Him who dwelt in the tabernacle. Dust is an emblem of a state of condemnation Genesis 3:14; Micah 7:17.

Numbers 5:19

Gone aside ... - literally, “gone astray from” thy husband by uncleanness; compare Hosea 4:12.

Numbers 5:23

Blot them out with the bitter water - In order to transfer the curses to the water. The action was symbolic. Travelers speak of the natives of Africa as still habitually seeking to obtain the full force of a written charm by drinking the water into which they have washed it.

Numbers 5:24

Shall cause the woman to drink - Thus was symbolised both her full acceptance of the hypothetical curse (compare Ezekiel 3:1-3; Jeremiah 15:16; Revelation 10:9), and its actual operation upon her if she should be guilty (compare Psalms 109:18).

Numbers 5:26

The memorial thereof - See the marginal reference. “Memorial” here is not the same as “memorial” in Numbers 5:15.

Numbers 5:27

Of itself, the drink was not noxious; and could only produce the effects here described by a special interposition of God. We do not read of any instance in which this ordeal was resorted to: a fact which may be explained either (with the Jews) as a proof of its efficacy, since the guilty could not be brought to face its terrors at all, and avoided them by confession; or more probably by the license of divorce tolerated by the law of Moses. Since a husband could put away his wife at pleasure, a jealous man would naturally prefer to take this course with a suspected wife rather than to call public attention to his own shame by having recourse to the trial of jealousy. The trial by red water, which bears a general resemblance to that here prescribed by Moses, is still in use among the tribes of Western Africa.