Numbers 5:23

Good News Translation

Then the priest shall write this curse down and wash the writing off into the bowl of bitter water.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
"The Kohen shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out into the water of bitterness.

King James Version
And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water:

Lexham English Bible
"‘And the priests will write these curses on the scroll, and he will wipe them off into the waters of the bitterness.

New Century Version
"‘The priest should write these curses on a scroll, wash the words off into the bitter water,

New English Translation
"‘Then the priest will write these curses on a scroll and then scrape them off into the bitter water.

Amplified Bible
'The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll and shall wash them off into the water of bitterness;

New American Standard Bible
'The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall wash them off into the water of bitterness.

Geneva Bible (1587)
After, the Priest shal write these curses in a booke, and shall blot them out with the bitter water,

Legacy Standard Bible
‘The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall wash them off into the water of bitterness.

Contemporary English Version
The priest will write these curses on special paper and wash them off into the bitter water,

Complete Jewish Bible
The cohen is to write these curses on a scroll, wash them off into the water of embitterment

Darby Translation
And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and shall blot them out with the bitter water,

Easy-to-Read Version
"The priest should write these warnings on a scroll. Then he should wash the words off into the water.

English Standard Version
"Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and wash them off into the water of bitterness.

George Lamsa Translation
And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot out the writing in the water of testing;

Christian Standard Bible®
“Then the priest is to write these curses on a scroll and wash them off into the bitter water.

Literal Translation
And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and shall blot them with the bitter waters.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
So the prest shall wryte this curse in a byll, and wash it out with the water,

American Standard Version
And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out into the water of bitterness:

Bible in Basic English
And the priest will put these curses in a book, washing out the writing with the bitter water;

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And let the priest write these curses in a booke, and shall blot them out with the bitter waters:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And the priest shall write these curses in a scroll, and he shall blot them out into the water of bitterness.

King James Version (1611)
And the Priest shall write these curses in a booke, and hee shall blot them out with the bitter water:

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and shall blot them out with the water of the conviction that brings the curse.

English Revised Version
And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out into the water of bitterness:

Berean Standard Bible
And the priest shall write these curses on a scroll and wash them off into the bitter water.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And the preest schal write thes cursis in a litil book, and he schal do awey tho cursis with bittereste watris, in to whiche he gaderide cursis,

Young's Literal Translation
`And the priest hath written these execrations in a book, and hath blotted [them] out with the bitter waters,

Update Bible Version
And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out into the water of bitterness:

Webster's Bible Translation
And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot [them] out with the bitter water:

World English Bible
"The priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out into the water of bitterness.

New King James Version
"Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall scrape them off into the bitter water.

New Living Translation
And the priest will write these curses on a piece of leather and wash them off into the bitter water.

New Life Bible
‘Then the religious leader will write these curses in a book. And he will wash them off into the bitter water.

New Revised Standard
Then the priest shall put these curses in writing, and wash them off into the water of bitterness.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then shall the priest write these curses in a scroll, - and wipe them out into the deadly water;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and shall wash them out with the most bitter waters, upon which he hath heaped the curses,

Revised Standard Version
"Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and wash them off into the water of bitterness;

THE MESSAGE
"The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash the words off into the bitter water. He then is to give the woman the bitter water that delivers a curse. This water will enter her body and cause acute pain. The priest then is to take from her hands a handful of the Grain-Offering for jealousy, wave it before God, and bring it to the Altar. The priest then is to take a handful of the Grain-Offering, using it as an exposure-offering, and burn it on the Altar; after this he is to make her drink the water. If she has defiled herself in being unfaithful to her husband, when she drinks the water that delivers a curse, it will enter her body and cause acute pain; her belly will swell and her womb shrivel. She will be cursed among her people. But if she has not defiled herself and is innocent of impurity, her name will be cleared and she will be able to have children.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
'The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall wash them off into the water of bitterness.

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

write these: Exodus 17:14, Deuteronomy 31:19, 2 Chronicles 34:24, Job 31:35, Jeremiah 51:60-64, 1 Corinthians 16:21, 1 Corinthians 16:22, Revelation 20:12

blot: Psalms 51:1, Psalms 51:9, Isaiah 43:25, Isaiah 44:22, Acts 3:19

Reciprocal: Colossians 2:14 - Blotting

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the priest shall write these curses in a book,.... The above curses imprecated on herself by an oath; the words and the letters of them were written at length, in a scroll of parchment; and, as some say also, her name, but not her double amen to them y:

and he shall blot [them] out with the bitter water: wash them out with it, and into it, or scrape them off of the parchment into it.

y Misnah, ut supra, (Sotah, c. 2) sect. 3.

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 5:23. The priest shall write these curses - and he shall blot them out — It appears that the curses which were written down with a kind of ink prepared for the purpose, as some of the rabbins think, without any calx of iron or other material that could make a permanent dye, were washed off the parchment into the water which the woman was obliged to drink, so that she drank the very words of the execration. The ink used in the East is almost all of this kind - a wet sponge will completely efface the finest of their writings. The rabbins say that the trial by the waters of jealousy was omitted after the Babylonish captivity, because adulteries were so frequent amongst them, that they were afraid of having the name of the Lord profaned by being so frequently appealed to! This is a most humiliating confession. "Though," says pious Bishop Wilson, "this judgment is not executed now on adulteresses, yet they have reason from this to conclude that a more terrible vengeance will await them hereafter without a bitter repentance; these being only a shadow of heavenly things, i. e., of what the Gospel requires of its professors, viz., a strict purity, or a severe repentance." The pious bishop would not preclude the necessity of pardon through the blood of the cross, for without this the severest repentance would be of no avail.