48443 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband,.... Gone aside from the paths of modesty and chastity, and betook herself to another man's bed instead of her husband's: and if thou be defiled, by committing adultery: and some man hath lain with thee beside thy husband; these phrases are all synonymous, and a heap of words are made...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing,.... An oath which has a curse annexed to it, if taken falsely, which was to be pronounced upon the woman if guilty: and the priest shall say unto the woman; pronouncing the imprecation or curse upon her, she having taken the oath, should she be guilty of the crime suspected of, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And this water that causeth the curse,.... Upon the drinking of which the curse follows, if guilty: shall go into thy bowels; and there operate and produce the above effects, which are repeated again to inject terror: to make [thy] belly to swell, and [thy] thigh to rot; here ends the form of the oath, which begins Numbers 5:19; and the woman...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the priest shall write these curses in a book,.... 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 (y): and he shall blot [them] out with the bitter water: wash them out with it, and into it,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse,..... Having the curse imprecated upon herself, if guilty, scraped into it; and this she was obliged to drink, whether she would or not; so it is said, if the roll is blotted out, and she says I am defiled, the water is poured out, and her offering is scattered in the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman's hand,.... Which she was obliged to hold in her hand while the above rites and ceremonies were performed; which was very heavy, being an omer of barley flour, a measure about three quarts, which was put into an Egyptian basket made of small palm tree twigs: and this was put into...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the priest shall take an handful of the offering, [even] the memorial thereof,.... For good or evil, according as her works were, as Aben Ezra observes; a memorial for good, if innocent, and a memorial for evil, if guilty: and burn [it] upon the altar; as the handful of other meat offerings used to be, Leviticus 1:2; and afterwards shall cause...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when he hath made her to drink the water,.... For, as before observed, and here by Jarchi again, if she says I will not drink it, after the roll is blotted out, they oblige her, and make her drink it whether she will or not, unless she says I am defiled: then it shall come to pass, [that] if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean,.... If she is not guilty of adultery, but pure from that sin: then she shall be free; from the effects of the bitter water; they shall have no such influence upon her, but she shall be as soured and healthful as ever; nay, the Jewish writers say more so, that if she had any sickness or disease upon...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
This [is] the law of jealousies,.... Which was appointed by God to deter wives from adultery, and preserve the people of Israel, the worshippers of him, from having a spurious brood among them; and to keep husbands from being cruel to their wives they might be jealous of, and to protect virtue and innocence, and to detect lewdness committed in the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife,.... [See comments on Numbers 5:14]; and shall set the woman before the Lord; has carried the matter so far as to bring his wife to the priest or civil magistrate, and declare his suspicion, and the ground of it: and the priest shall execute upon her all this law; he...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity,.... Which otherwise he would not, by conniving at her loose way of living, and not reproving her for it, and bringing her either to repentance or punishment; and retaining and encouraging jealousy in his mind, without declaring it, and his reasons for it: the sense of the passage seems to be, that...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Numbers 6 In this chapter is given the law concerning Nazarites, Numbers 6:1; which directs what they were to abstain from, from drinking wine, or any strong liquors, from shaving their heads, and defiling themselves with the dead, Numbers 6:3; and in case of a defilement, directions are given what offerings a Nazarite should bring...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... At the same time, or immediately after the law concerning the woman suspected of adultery was given; with which the following law concerning Nazarites may be thought to have a close connection, as some Jewish writers observe, women being concerned in it as well as men; and as wine leads to adultery, as Jarchi...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
In this chapter we have, I. The law concerning Nazarites, 1. What it was to which the vow of a Nazarite obliged him, ver. 1-8. 2. A remedial law in case a Nazarite happened to be polluted by the touch of a dead body, ver. 9-12. 3. The solemnity of his discharge when his time was up, ver. 13-21. II. Instructions given to the priests how they should...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,.... Whom the following law only concerned, and not Gentiles; so runs the Jewish canon, "the Gentiles have no Nazariteship, though they may bring their vows and freewill offerings as an Israelite, yet if they vow the vow of a Nazarite, the law of the Nazarite is not obliging on them, or they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He shall separate [himself] from wine,.... Old or new, as Ben Gersom; from drinking it, any of it: not only from an immoderate and excessive drinking of it, which every man should abstain from, but from drinking of it at all, that he might be more free and fit for the service of God; for prayer, meditation, reading the Scriptures, and attendance...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree,.... Of its leaves, branches, and fruit, especially the latter, put into any sort of food, or infused into any liquor, or mixed with any sauce for food: the days or time of separation were according as the vow was made, for a shorter or longer time; though the Jews...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
All the days of the vow of his separation,.... Be the time he has vowed to be a Nazarite a week, a, month, or more, even a thousand days, but not less than thirty, as Ben Gersom observes: there shall no razor come upon his head; he might not shave his beard, nor cut off his locks, and shave his head, nor cut short his locks with a pair of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
All the days that he separateth [himself] unto the Lord,.... This phrase is repeated at every new article and branch of the law of the Nazarites, of which what follows is the third; showing that each part of it, during that time, was strictly to be observed: he shall come at no dead body: not near to any, not even to be in the same place where a...