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La Biblia Reina-Valera
Números 5:17
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- InternationalParallel Translations
y el sacerdote tomará agua santa en una vasija de barro; y tomará del polvo que está sobre el piso del tabernáculo, y lo pondrá en el agua.
Luego el sacerdote tomar� del agua santa en un vaso de barro; tomar� tambi�n el sacerdote del polvo que hubiere en el suelo del tabern�culo, y lo echar� en el agua.
Luego tomar� el sacerdote del agua santa en un vaso de barro; tomar� tambi�n el sacerdote del polvo que hubiere en el suelo del tabern�culo, y lo echar� en el agua.
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
holy water: That is, water from the laver; called holy, because separated from common to sacred uses. This is the most ancient account of the trial by ordeal, which obtained so generally among various nations; and it was calculated to fortify the minds of the Israelitish women in the hour of temptation, and to render them watchful against all occasions of exciting suspicion in the breasts of their husbands. Numbers 19:2-9, Exodus 30:18
of the dust: Job 2:12, Jeremiah 17:13, Lamentations 3:29, John 8:6, John 8:8
Reciprocal: Leviticus 14:5 - earthen vessel Numbers 5:18 - the bitter water
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And the priest shall take holy water,.... Out of the laver, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, and so Jarchi and Aben Ezra:
in an earthen vessel; which held half a log, and that was but a quarter of a pint, or three egg shells; for no more was assigned, to a suspected woman, according to the Misnah r. Some say only a fourth part: an earthen vessel was made use of, as everything vile and mean was in this affair:
and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put [it] into the water; first the water was put in, and then the dust, as Ben Gersom observes: there was a place a cubit square, where was a marble table, and a ring fixed in it, and when he lifted it up he took dust from under it, and put it so as it might be upon the top of the water s; which was used, either, as the Targum of Jonathan suggests, because the end of all flesh is to come to dust, and so to put her in mind of her original and her end; and in like manner the earthen vessel might signify, that she would be broke to pieces as that vessel; as also it might direct her thoughts to the tempter, by the influence of whose temptation she had been drawn into this sin, dust being the serpent's food; and this being taken off the floor of the tabernacle, might add to the veneration of it, and make it more solemn and awful to drink of it.
r Sotah, c. 2. sect. 2. Menachot, c. 9. sect. 3. s Sotah, c. 2. sect. 2.
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 5:17. Holy water — Water out of the laver, called holy because consecrated to sacred uses. This is the most ancient case of the trial by ordeal. Numbers 5:31; Numbers 5:31.
In an earthen vessel — Supposed by the Jews to be such as had never been previously used.
Dust that is in the floor — Probably intended to point out the baseness of the crime of which she was accused.
