Numbers 5:20 (BSB)

But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority and have defiled yourself and lain carnally with a man other than your husband’—

From Numbers 5. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Numbers 5:20

  • 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 5:20: But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband,.... Gone aside from the paths of modesty and chastity, and betook herself to another man's bed instead of her husband's: and if thou be defiled, by committing adultery: and some man hath lain with thee beside thy husband; these phrases are all synonymous, and a heap of words are made use of to...
  • 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...