Numbers 5:22

Good News Translation

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."

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
and this water that brings a curse will go into your bowels, and make your body swell, and your thigh fall away.' The woman shall say, 'Amein, Amein.'

King James Version
And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.

Lexham English Bible
and these waters that bring a curse will go into your intestines to cause your womb to swell and to make your hip fall away." And the women will say, "Amen. Amen."

New Century Version
This water that brings a curse will go inside you and make your body unable to give birth to another baby." "‘The woman must say, "I agree."

New English Translation
and this water that causes the curse will go into your stomach, and make your abdomen swell and your thigh rot." Then the woman must say, "Amen, amen."

Amplified Bible
and this water that brings a curse shall go into your stomach, and make your abdomen swell and your thigh waste away." And the woman shall say, "Amen. Amen (so let it be)."

New American Standard Bible
and this water that brings a curse shall go into your stomach, to make your belly swell up and your thigh shrivel." And the woman shall say, "Amen, Amen."

Geneva Bible (1587)
And that this cursed water may goe into thy bowels, to cause thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot. Then the woman shall answere, Amen, Amen.

Legacy Standard Bible
and this water that brings curses shall go into your stomach and make your abdomen swell and your thigh fall away." And the woman shall say, "Amen. Amen."

Complete Jewish Bible
May this water that causes the curse go into your inner parts and make your abdomen swell and your private parts shrivel up!" — and the woman is to respond, "Amen! Amen!"

Darby Translation
and this water that bringeth the curse shall enter into thy bowels, to make the belly to swell, and the thigh to shrink. And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.

Easy-to-Read Version
The priest must say, ‘You must drink this water that causes trouble. If you have sinned, you will not be able to have children. Any baby you have will die before it is born.' And the woman should say, ‘I agree to do as you say.'

English Standard Version
May this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away.' And the woman shall say, ‘Amen, Amen.'

George Lamsa Translation
And this water of testing shall go into your belly and make your belly to swell and your thighs to rot; and the woman shall say, Amen, amen.

Christian Standard Bible®
May this water that brings a curse enter your stomach, causing your belly to swell and your womb to shrivel.’

Literal Translation
And these waters which cause the curse shall go into your bowels to cause the belly to swell, and the thigh to fall. And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
So go this cursed water in to thy body, that yi wombe berst, and thy thye rotte. And the wife shal saye: Amen Amen.

American Standard Version
and this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, and make thy body to swell, and thy thigh to fall away. And the woman shall say, Amen, Amen.

Bible in Basic English
And this water of the curse will go into your body, causing disease of your stomach and wasting of your legs: and the woman will say, So be it.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
These cursed waters go into the bowels of thee, that they may make thy belly swell, and thy thigh to rotte. And let the woman say, Amen amen.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
and this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, and make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to fall away'; and the woman shall say: 'Amen, Amen.'

King James Version (1611)
And this water that causeth the curse, shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: and the woman shall say, Amen, Amen.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
and this water bringing the curse shall enter into thy womb to cause thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot. And the woman shall say, So be it, So be it.

English Revised Version
and this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, and make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to fall away: and the woman shall say, Amen, Amen.

Berean Standard Bible
May this water that brings a curse enter your stomach and cause your belly to swell and your thigh to shrivel.' Then the woman is to say, 'Amen, Amen.'

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
cursid watris entre in to thi wombe, and while the wombe swellith, thin hipe wexe rotun. And the womman schal answere, Amen! amen!

Young's Literal Translation
and these waters which cause the curse have gone into thy bowels, to cause the belly to swell, and the thigh to fall; and the woman hath said, Amen, Amen.

Update Bible Version
and this water that causes the curse shall go into your insides, and make your body to swell, and your thigh to fall away. And the woman shall say, Amen, Amen.

Webster's Bible Translation
And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make [thy] belly to swell, and [thy] thigh to perish. And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.

World English Bible
and this water that brings a curse will go into your bowels, and make your body swell, and your thigh fall away.' The woman shall say, 'Amen, Amen.'

New King James Version
and may this water that causes the curse go into your stomach, and make your belly swell and your thigh rot." "Then the woman shall say, "Amen, so be it."

New Living Translation
Now may this water that brings the curse enter your body and cause your abdomen to swell and your womb to shrivel.' And the woman will be required to say, ‘Yes, let it be so.'

New Life Bible
This water that brings a curse will go into your stomach and make it grow bigger and your leg to waste away." And the woman will say, "Let it be so. Let it be so."

New Revised Standard
now may this water that brings the curse enter your bowels and make your womb discharge, your uterus drop!" And the woman shall say, "Amen. Amen."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
so shall this water that causeth a curse enter into thy body, causing womb to swell and thigh to fall away. And the woman shall say, Amen, Amen.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Let the cursed waters enter into thy belly, and may thy womb swell and thy thigh rot. And the woman shall answer, Amen, amen.

Revised Standard Version
may this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your body swell and your thigh fall away.' And the woman shall say, 'Amen, Amen.'

New American Standard Bible (1995)
and this water that brings a curse shall go into your stomach, and make your abdomen swell and your thigh waste away." And the woman shall say, "Amen. Amen."

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

go into: Numbers 5:27, Psalms 109:18, Proverbs 1:31, Ezekiel 3:3

the woman: Deuteronomy 27:15-26, Job 31:21, Job 31:22, Job 31:39, Job 31:40, Psalms 7:4, Psalms 7:5

Amen: Psalms 41:13, Psalms 72:19, Psalms 89:52, John 3:3, John 3:11, John 5:24, John 5:25, John 6:53,*Gr.

Reciprocal: Numbers 5:18 - the bitter water Deuteronomy 22:22 - General Nehemiah 5:13 - Amen Jeremiah 28:6 - Amen Matthew 6:13 - Amen 1 Corinthians 14:16 - Amen

Cross-References

Genesis 5:5
and died at the age of 930.

Genesis 5:6
When Seth was 105, he had a son, Enosh,

Genesis 5:24
He spent his life in fellowship with God, and then he disappeared, because God took him away.

Genesis 6:9
This is the story of Noah. He had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Noah had no faults and was the only good man of his time. He lived in fellowship with God,

Genesis 17:1
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, "I am the Almighty God. Obey me and always do what is right.

Genesis 24:40
He answered, ‘The Lord , whom I have always obeyed, will send his angel with you and give you success. You will get for my son a wife from my own people, from my father's family.

Genesis 48:15
Then he blessed Joseph: "May God, whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac served, bless these boys! May God, who has led me to this very day, bless them!

Exodus 16:4
The Lord said to Moses, "Now I am going to cause food to rain down from the sky for all of you. The people must go out every day and gather enough for that day. In this way I can test them to find out if they will follow my instructions.

Leviticus 26:12
I will be with you; I will be your God, and you will be my people.

Deuteronomy 5:33
Obey them all, so that everything will go well with you and so that you will continue to live in the land that you are going to occupy.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And this water that causeth the curse,.... Upon the drinking of which the curse follows, if guilty:

shall go into thy bowels; and there operate and produce the above effects, which are repeated again to inject terror:

to make [thy] belly to swell, and [thy] thigh to rot; here ends the form of the oath, which begins Numbers 5:19;

and the woman shall say, amen, amen; so be it; let it be as pronounced, if I am guilty; which, as Aben Ezra observes, is repeated for the sake of confirmation; though the Jewish writers commonly understand it as respecting various things, the oath and the curse, the thing charged with, and the persons suspected of x.

x Misn. ib. sect. 5. Targum Jon. & Jerus. & Jarchi in loc.

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Numbers 5:22. Thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot — What is meant by these expressions cannot be easily ascertained. לנפל ירך lanpel yarech signifies literally thy thigh to fall. As the thigh, feet, c., were used among the Hebrews delicately to express the parts which nature conceals, (see Genesis 46:26), the expression here is probably to be understood in this sense and the falling down of the thigh here must mean something similar to the prolapsus uteri, or falling down of the womb, which might be a natural effect of the preternatural distension of the abdomen. In 1 Corinthians 11:29, St. Paul seems to allude to the case of the guilty woman drinking the bitter cursed waters that caused her destruction: He who eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation (κριμα, condemnation or judgment) to himself; and there is probably a reference to the same thing in Psalms 109:18, and in Daniel 9:11.

And the woman shall say, Amen, amen. — This is the first place where this word occurs in the common form of a concluding wish in prayer. The root אמן aman signifies to be steady, true, permanent. And in prayer it signifies let it be so - make it steady - let it be ratified. Some have supposed that it is composed of the initial letters of אדני מלך נאמן Adonai Melech Neeman, My Lord the faithful King, but this derivation is both far-fetched and unnecessary.