The Sotah Passage (Num 5)

The sotah is the woman referred to in Numbers whose husband suspects her of adultery. She is made to drink bitter water by the priest which causes her to become childless (or to die depending on interpretation) if she’s guilty. Conversely, by failing to act, the water establishes her innocense. Here’s the KJV passage which I’ve abridged a bit (Num 5:12-28).

If any man’s wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him[...]And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband[...]and there be no witness against her[...] And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled. Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy[...]

And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water[...]and uncover the woman’s head[...]and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse. And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman: “If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse. But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband” — then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman — “the LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell. 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”.

And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water. And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter[...]And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people.
And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed.

I’ll opine in the next post, in the meantime the text stands…