Numb. v. 29. This is the law of jealousies.
ANY ordeals have been devised by man ; but they are all superstitious, delusive, cruel, and unjust. But there has been one established by God himself, which was open to no objection. It was appointed for the satisfaction of any who might con- ceive themselves injured by their wives. The jealous husband might bring his wife to a tribunal, at which the heart-searching God was to be both witness and judge. The process was this — He was to bring his wife to the priest ; and with her an offering, not of fine wheat flour, but of barley meal ; and that with- out either oil or frankincense ; (the offering being intended to mark her humiliating and afflicted state.) He was then to take some holy water out of the laver, and to mix with it some dust from the floor of the tabernacle : and to repeat to the woman a form of imprecation ; to which the woman was to say, * Amen, Amen,' in token of her full consent to every part of it. This curse was then to be written in a book, and washed off again into the vessel that held the water ; that so the water might be, as it were, impregnated with the curse. Then the offering was to be waved before the Lord, and part of it to be burnt upon the altar, in token that an appeal was made to God. Then the water was given to the woman to drink ; and immediately it was seen whether she had been justly or unjustly accused. If she had been guilty of un-