SEV Biblia, Chapter 5:23
Y el sacerdote escribirá estas maldiciones en un libro, y las borrará con las aguas amargas;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Numbers 5:23
Verse 23. The 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 wet sponge will completely efface the finest of their writings. The rabbins say that the trial by the waters of jealousy was omitted after the Babylonish captivity, because adulteries were so frequent amongst them, that they were afraid of having the name of the Lord profaned by being so frequently appealed to! This is a most humiliating confession. "Though," says pious Bishop Wilson, "this judgment is not executed now on adulteresses, yet they have reason from this to conclude that a more terrible vengeance will await them hereafter without a bitter repentance; these being only a shadow of heavenly things, i. e., of what the Gospel requires of its professors, viz., a strict purity, or a severe repentance." The pious bishop would not preclude the necessity of pardon through the blood of the cross, for without this the severest repentance would be of no avail.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 23. And the priest shall write these curses in a book , etc.] The above curses imprecated on herself by an oath; the words and the letters of them were written at length, in a scroll of parchment; and, as some say also, her name, but not her double amen to them f44 : and he shall blot [them] out with the bitter water : wash them out with it, and into it, or scrape them off of the parchment into it.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 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 suc suspicions might occasion. It would also hinder the guilty from escaping, and the innocent from coming under just suspicion. When n proof could be brought, the wife was called on to make this solem appeal to a heart-searching God. No woman, if she were guilty, coul say "Amen" to the adjuration, and drink the water after it, unless sh disbelieved the truth of God, or defied his justice. The water i called the bitter water, because it caused the curse. Thus sin is called an evil and a bitter thing. Let all that meddle with forbidde pleasures, know that they will be bitterness in the latter end. From the whole learn, 1. Secret sins are known to God, and sometimes ar strangely brought to light in this life; and that there is a day comin when God will, by Christ, judge the secrets of men according to the gospel, Ro 2:16. 2 In particular, Whoremongers and adulterers God wil surely judge. Though we have not now the waters of jealousy, yet we have God's word, which ought to be as great a terror. Sensual lust will end in bitterness. 3. God will manifest the innocency of the innocent. The same providence is for good to some, and for hurt to others. And it will answer the purposes which God intends __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
וכתב 3789 את 853 האלת 423 האלה 428 הכהן 3548 בספר 5612 ומחה 4229 אל 413 מי 4325 המרים׃ 4751
