Numbers 5:18 (BSB)

After the priest has the woman stand before the LORD, he is to let down her hair and place in her hands the grain offering of memorial, which is the grain offering for jealousy. The priest is to hold the bitter water that brings a curse.

From Numbers 5. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Numbers 5:18

  • Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Numbers 5:11-31: We have here the law concerning the solemn trial of a wife whose husband was jealous of her. Observe, I. What was the case supposed: That a man had some reason to suspect his wife to have committed adultery, Num 5:12-14. Here, 1. The sin of adultery is justly represented as an exceedingly sinful sin; it is going aside from God and virtue, and the good way, Pro 2:17.
  • John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Numbers 5:18: And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord,.... In the east of the tabernacle, with her face to the west, where was the holy of holies, so Ben Gersom; but not immediately for they had her from place to place, as Jarchi says, till she was weary, and her mind disturbed, that she might confess; and if she said, I am defiled, she...
  • Geneva Bible Notes (Reformed), Geneva Bible Study Notes on Numbers 5:18: And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and uncover the woman's head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which [is] the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse: (i) It was so called by the effect, because it declared the woman to be accursed, and turned to her destruction.
  • Keil & Delitzsch (Lutheran), Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament on Numbers 5:11-31: Num 5:11-31 Sentence of God upon Wives Suspected of Adultery. - As any suspicion cherished by a man against his wife, that she either is or has been guilty of adultery, whether well-founded or not, is sufficient to shake the marriage connection to its very roots, and to undermine, along with marriage, the foundation of the civil commonwealth, it was of the greatest importance to...