EasyEnglish Bible 2018
Numbers 5:23
23The priest must write the curses on special paper. Then he must wash the words off the paper into the bitter water.
Numbers 5:23 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water:
- New International Version (NIV)“ ‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water.
- English Standard Version (ESV)"Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and wash them off into the water of bitterness.
- New King James Version (NKJV)‘Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall scrape them off into the bitter water.
Context of Numbers 5:23
21may the Lord bring the curse on you. The bitter water will cause your female parts to become smaller. Your stomach will become very big. 22That will happen when you drink the bitter water.” The woman must say, “That should happen. I agree!” The priest must write the curses on special paper. Then he must wash the words off the paper into the bitter water. 24He must tell the woman that she must drink the bitter water. This water that brings a curse will go into her body. It may cause her to be very ill. 25But first, the priest must take the grain offering from her hands. That is the offering because the man does not trust his wife. The priest must lift it up in front of the Lord. Then he must bring it to the altar.
Read all of Numbers 5Numbers 5:23 word by word
וְ֠כָתַב אֶת־הָאָלֹ֥ת הָאֵ֛לֶּה הַכֹּהֵ֖ן בַּסֵּ֑פֶר וּמָחָ֖ה אֶל־מֵ֥י הַמָּרִֽים׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Numbers 5:23
- Exodus 17:14Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write down what happened here in a book. Then people will remember it. Read it aloud for Joshua to hear. Say that I will completely destroy all the Amalekites. Nobody in the whole world will remember them any more.’
- Deuteronomy 31:19Now write down this song that I will give to you. Teach the Israelites to sing it. Its words will show them that they are guilty because they have not obeyed me.
- 2 Chronicles 34:24This is what the Lord says: I will bring great trouble to this place and the people who live here. The message of the book that they read to the king of Judah tells about what will happen.
- Job 31:35I want someone to listen to me! All the things that I say are true. Almighty God should give me an answer! I need to know what I have done that is wrong. He should write down the reason why I am guilty!
- Jeremiah 51:60Jeremiah had written on a scroll a list of all the terrible troubles that would happen to Babylon. Those were all the messages that he had written about Babylon.
- 1 Corinthians 16:21I, Paul, am writing these words at the end of this letter with my own hand. I say ‘hello’ to you.
- Revelation 20:12I also saw the people who had died, important people and ordinary people. They were standing in front of the great throne. Then someone opened books to see what was in them. God had written in them all the things that the people had done. Then someone opened another book which is God's book of life. God judged the people who had died. He looked in the books to see what they had done, and he decided what was right.
- Psalms 51:1Please forgive me, God, because of your faithful love. Because you are so kind, please clean away my sins.
- Isaiah 43:25But I am the one who removes your sins when you do not obey me. I, the Lord, do that, because of who I am. I do not hold your sins in my mind.
- Isaiah 44:22I have removed the guilt of your sins, like the wind blows away a cloud. When you turned against me, I have quickly forgiven you. Return to me now, because I have rescued you.’
- Acts 3:19So you must stop doing wrong things. Change how you live and turn to God. Then God will forgive you for all the wrong things that you have done.
Commentaries on Numbers 5:23
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 23The priest shall write these curses - and he shall blot them out - It appears that the curses which were written down with a kind of ink prepared for the purpose, as some of the rabbins think, without any calx of iron or other material that could make a permanent dye, were washed off the parchment into the water which the woman was obliged to drink, so that she drank the very words of the execration. The ink used in the East is almost all of this kind - a…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 11-31Verses 11-31 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…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 11-31Verses 11-31 This law would make the women of Israel watch against giving cause for suspicion. On the other hand, it would hinder the cruel treatment such suspicions might occasion. It would also hinder the guilty from escaping, and the innocent from coming under just suspicion. When no proof could be brought, the wife was called on to make this solemn appeal to a heart-searching God. No woman, if she were guilty, could say "Amen" to the adjuration, and…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 23-24The image of drinking curses appears again in Ezekiel 2:8–3:3 and Revelation 10:8–11.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 23-2423-24. write these curses in a book--The imprecations, along with her name, were inscribed in some kind of record--on parchment, or more probably on a wooden tablet. blot them out with the bitter water--If she were innocent, they could be easily erased, and were perfectly harmless; but if guilty, she would experience the fatal effects of the water she had drunk.Read the comment
Topics related to Numbers 5:23
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Numbers 5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
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