The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 64

of the husband is a dish011our to the wife. sent, as it were, the fruits of her life befon, Barley meal. In the days of Elisha half the God, nnd challenge investigation of them. price of fine flour (2 Kinss vii. 1), and only Bitter water. It was not literally bitter, eaten by the poor (Ezek. 1v, 12; john vi. 9). but it waa so fmught with conviction and An offering o.f jealousy. Literally, "of judgment as to bring bitter auffcring on the jealousies." nt-:;ii?, an intensive plural. An guilty. offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to Ver. 19. - I f no man. The oath pre- remembrance. 0vt1ia pv11pot1i1•ov, Septua- supposed her innocence. With another p;int. An offering to bring the woman into insteadofthyhuaband. Hebrew, "under thy judicial remembrance before the Lord, in husband," i. e. as a wife subject to a husband order that her sin (if anv) might bt remem- (Ezek. xxiii. 5 ; Hos. iv. 12). "Y1rav6po1: bered with him, nnd be declared. oi',,ra, Septuagint. It was only as a /emm6 Ver. 16.--Before the Lord. Either at ihe cowvcru that she could commit this sin. brazen altar or at the door of the taber- Ver. 21.-Then the priest shall . . say unto nncle. the woman. These words are parenthetical, Ver. 17.-B:oly water. Probablv from just as in Matt. ix. 6. The latter part of the laver which stood near the altar' (Exod. the oath is called "an oath of cursing," m. 18). The expression is nowhere else because it contained the imprecations on used. The_Septnagint has iiowp rca~apov /;wv, the guilty. To rot. Hebrew, " to fall" Tliv pure rnnnmg water. In an earthen veasel. l"Jpov t1011 6,a1r11rrwrora, Septuagint. To Cheap and coarse, like the offering. Of the swell. The Hebrew zalieh is not of quite dust that is in the :floor of the tabernacle. certain meaning, but probably this. This is the only place where the floor of the Ver. 22.-Into thy bowels. Cf. Ps. cix. tabernacle is mentioned. As no directions 18. El, r,jv ro,~iav ,rov, Septuagint. It has were given concerning it, it was probably the been thought that these symptoms belonged bare earth cleared and stamped. The cedar to some known disease, such as dropsy (Jose• floor of the temple was overlaid with gold phus, 'Ant.,' iii. 11, 6), or ovarian dropsy. (l Kings vi. 16, 30). This use of the dust But it is clear that the whole matter was has been held to signify the fact (a) that man outside the range of the known and of the was made of dust, and must return to dust natural An innocent woman may suffer (Gen. iii. 19) ; or (b) that dust is the serpent's from dropsy, or nny form of it; but this was meat, i. e. that shame and disgust are the a wholly peculiar infliction by direct visita- inevitable fruit of sin (Gen. iii. 14 ; Isa. lrv. tion of God. The principle which underlay 25). Of these, (a) is not appropriate to the the infliction was, however, clear: 6, .:;., ydp matter in question, since mortality is com- ,j aµapria, oui roiirwv •i r,µwpia-the organ& mon to all, and (b) is far too recondite to of sin are the seat of the plague. Amen. have been intended here. It is very unlikely amen. Doubled here, as in the Gosr.el of that the spiritual meaning of Gen. iii 14 John. The woman was to accept {if she was known to any of the Jews. A much dared) the awful ordeal and appeal to God simpler and more intelligible explanation is by this response ; if she dared not, she pro- to be found in the obvious fact that the dust nounced herself guilty. of the tabernacle was the only thing which Ver. 23. - In a book. On a roll Blot belonged to the tabernacle, and which was, them out with the bitter water. Rather, so to speak, impregnated with the awful "wash them off into the bitter water," in holu1ess of him that dwelt therein, that order to transfer the venom of the curses to col!ld be mixed with water and drunk. For the water. 'Eto~1/,S,u ... .t, ro v6wp, Septll'• a similar reason the " sin " of the people, the agint. The writing on the scroll was to be golden calf, was ground to powder, and the washed off in the vessel of water. Of course people made to drink it (Exod. mii. 20). the only actual consequence was that the ink The idea. conveyed to the dl!llest apprehen- was mixed with the water, but in the imagina- sion certainly was that with the holy dust tion of the people, and to the frightened con• Divine "virtue" had passed into the water- science of a guilty woman, the curses wera virtue which would ~ve it supernatural also held in solution in the water of trial. efficacy to sley the guilty and to leave the The direction was founded on a world-wide guiltless unharmed. superstition, still prevalent in Africa, and Ver. 18. -Uncover the woman's head. indeed amongst most semi-barbarous peoples. Jn token that she had forfeited her glory by In the ' Romance of Setnan,' translated by breaking, or seeming to have broken, her Brugsch. Bey, the scene of which is lnid in allegiance to her husband (1 Cor. xi. 5-10); the time ·or Rameses the Great, a maftical perhaps also with some reference to the truth formula written on a :i;>apyrus leaf is dissolved that "all things are naked and open to the in water, and drunk with the effect of impart. eyes of him" with whom she had to do ing all its secrets to him that drinks it. (Heb. iv. 13). Put the offering of memorial So in the present day, by a similar supersti- in her hancll. 'fhat she herself might pre- tion, do sick Mahomedans swallow texts of on. v. 11-31.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 11