The Adjuration of the Suspected Adulteress

ca. 1200–332 BCE

About This Entry

Numbers 5:11–31 describes a procedure for cases in which a man suspects his wife of adultery but is unable to prove it. The suspected adulteress—called a sotah, a “straying woman”—is brought before a priest at the sanctuary and made to undergo an ordeal that involves drinking a solution called “bitter waters.” If the woman has committed adultery, the waters are said to cause her belly to swell and her “thigh” (often a euphemism for genitals) to “fall,” perhaps a description of a prolapsed uterus. If she has not committed adultery, she retains the ability to become pregnant. See here to learn more about later rabbinic treatment of the sotah.

¹¹The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ¹²Speak to the Israelite people and say to them:

If any man’s wife has gone astray and broken faith with him ¹³in that a man has had carnal relations with her unbeknown to her husband, and she keeps secret the fact that she has defiled herself without being forced, and there is no witness against her—¹⁴but a fit of jealousy comes over him and he is wrought up about the wife who has defiled herself; or if a fit of jealousy comes over one and he is wrought up about his wife although she has not defiled herself—¹⁵the man shall bring his wife to the priest. And he shall bring as an offering for her one-tenth of an ephah of barley flour. No oil shall be poured upon it and no frankincense shall be laid on it, for it is a meal offering of jealousy, a meal offering of remembrance which recalls wrongdoing.

¹⁶The priest shall bring her forward and have her stand before the Lord. ¹⁷The priest shall take sacral water in an earthen vessel and, taking some of the earth that is on the floor of the Tabernacle, the priest shall put it into the water. ¹⁸After he has made the woman stand before the Lord, the priest shall bare the woman’s head and place upon her hands the meal offering of remembrance, which is a meal offering of jealousy. And in the priest’s hands shall be the water of bitterness that induces the spell. ¹⁹The priest shall adjure the woman, saying to her, “If no man has lain with you, if you have not gone astray in defilement while married to your husband, be immune to harm from this water of bitterness that induces the spell. ²⁰But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and have defiled yourself, if a man other than your husband has had carnal relations with you”—²¹here the priest shall administer the curse of adjuration to the woman, as the priest goes on to say to the woman—“may the Lord make you a curse and an imprecation among your people, as the Lord causes your thigh to sag and your belly to distend; ²²may this water that induces the spell enter your body, causing the belly to distend and the thigh to sag.” And the woman shall say, “Amen, amen!”

²³The priest shall put these curses down in writing and rub it off into the water of bitterness. ²⁴He is to make the woman drink the water of bitterness that induces the spell, so that the spell-inducing water may enter into her to bring on bitterness. ²⁵Then the priest shall take from the woman’s hand the meal offering of jealousy, elevate the meal offering before the Lord, and present it on the altar. ²⁶The priest shall scoop out of the meal offering a token part of it and turn it into smoke on the altar. Last, he shall make the woman drink the water.

²⁷Once he has made her drink the water—if she has defiled herself by breaking faith with her husband, the spell-inducing water shall enter into her to bring on bitterness, so that her belly shall distend and her thigh shall sag; and the woman shall become a curse among her people. ²⁸But if the woman has not defiled herself and is pure, she shall be unharmed and able to retain seed.

²⁹This is the ritual in cases of jealousy, when a woman goes astray while married to her husband and defiles herself, ³⁰or when a fit of jealousy comes over a man and he is wrought up over his wife: the woman shall be made to stand before the Lord and the priest shall carry out all this ritual with her. ³¹The man shall be clear of guilt; but that woman shall suffer for her guilt.

We’re sorry. The Posen Library’s licensing agreements prevent this text from being printed or downloaded.