The Bitter Effect of the Water in the Law of Jealousy (Num 5:11–31)

What is it about?

The Hebrew Bible contains some laws that are not very easy to understand. One of these are found in chapter five of the book of Numbers. It concerns a ritual meant to reveal if a woman has been unfaithful towards her husband. Several aspects of this law make it stand out among the laws of the Hebrew Bible. One of them is that the woman is made to drink water mixed with dust and a written curse – the “water of bitterness,” and if she has been unfaithful a spon-taneous abortion seemingly happens. This article investigates what the ingredients of the potion may reveal about the meaning of what happens here, and especially focusses on the use of dust against the background of rituals using dust found in Persia. It is argued that it is possible to understand what happens as a conflict between purity and impurity. The dust – together with the water and curse – signal purity (and holiness) and therefore have severe effects upon meet-ing the impurity of unfaithfulness in the woman.

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