Numbers 5:21

Num 5:21 Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell;

Ver. 21. Thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell.] God takes notice of the offending member; as he did in those blasphemers, who gnawed their tongues; {Rev 16:10} Absalom’s hair; Jeroboam’s hand; the adulterer’s loins; {Pro 5:11} Zimri and Cozbi, thrust through the belly. {Num 25:8} Charles II, King of Navarre, Joan, Queen of Naples, &c., suffered as they sinned.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:21 when he makes you infertile, causing your womb to shrivel: Literally when he causes your thigh to waste away. “Thigh” is a euphemism for the reproductive organs (cp. Gen 24:2; 47:29); something would go wrong with her reproductive abilities. The punishment suited the crime as sexual immorality resulted in the inability to have children.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Hebrew, to fall.

Both because she had committed so heinous a fault, and forsware herself in denying the same.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The Lord make thee a curse, &c.--a usual form of imprecation (Isa 65:15; Jer 29:22).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 21. The Lord make thee a curse and an oath] Let thy name and punishment be remembered and mentioned as an example and terror to all others. Like that mentioned Jer 29:22-23: "The Lord make thee like Zedekiah, and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives." - Ainsworth.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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 she had swore concerning:

the Lord make thee a curse, and an oath among the people; accursed according to the oath taken; or let this be the form of an oath and imprecation used by the people, saying, if I have done so and so, let me be accursed as such a woman, or let not that happen to me, as did to such a woman, so Jarchi:

when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; upon drinking the bitter waters; but though these things followed upon that, yet not as the natural cause of them, for they are ascribed to the Lord, and to a supernatural and miraculous power of his, which went along with the drinking of them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Curse. Hebrew, "an object of execration, and an oath," &c., so that people can wish no greater misfortune to befall any one, than what thou shalt endure. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

An oath, i.e. a form of cursing or imprecatory oaths, that when they would curse a person, they may wish that they may be as cursed and miserable as thou wast upon this occasion. See the phrase Isa 65:15; Jer 29:22 and compare Gen 48:20; Rth 4:11,12.

Thy thigh; a modest signification of the genital parts, used both in Scripture, as Gen 46:26; Exo 1:5, and other authors, that the sin might be evident in the punishment.

To rot, Heb. to fall, i.e. to die or waste away, as the word is used, 1Ch 21:14, compared with 2Sa 24:15.

To swell, suddenly and violently till it burst, which the Jews note was frequent in this and like cases, as Exo 32:20. And it was a clear evidence of the truth of their religion.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. The Lord make thee… an oath — So signal a mark of Jehovah’s wrath was she to bear, that in future adjurations she was to be held up as the conspicuous example and measure of his vengeance, and the imprecation was to be, “May I become like this accursed woman!”

Make thy thigh to rot — Hebrew, to fall.

Belly to swell — Greek, to be burnt. The precise nature of the punishment here threatened is more clearly gathered from the original. The thigh is a euphemism for the sexual organs.

Gen_46:26. Hence the painful infliction, the falling of the womb, attended by an inflammation, which, in the Septuagint, is rendered by the word burn. Michaelis suggests that an ovarian tumour, with its dreadful suffering and emaciation, is here denounced as the penalty. Josephus calls it the ordinary dropsy. Theodoret says, “The punishment shall come from the same source as the sin.” See Rom_6:19. The instrument of the momentary sin shall be the channel through which the penal pain shall be poured during all the life of the convicted adulteress. Verily, “the way of the transgressor is hard.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then the priest shall say unto the woman. These words are parenthetical, just as in Mat_9:6. The latter part of the oath is called "an oath of cursing," because it contained the imprecations on the guilty. To rot. Hebrew, "to fall." Ton sou diapeptwkota , Septuagint. To swell. The Hebrew zabeh is not of quite certain meaning, but probably this.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

An oath - That is, a form of cursing, that when they would curse a person, they may wish that they may be as miserable as thou wast. Thy thigh - A modest expression, used both in scripture, as Gen. xlvi, 26, Exod. i, 5, and other authors. To rot - Hebrew. to fall, that is, to die or waste away. To swell - Suddenly and violently till it burst, which the Jews note was frequent in this case. And it was a clear evidence of the truth of their religion.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

בשבעת האלה [AND THE PRIEST SHALL ADJURE THE WOMAN] WITH AN ADJURATION OF CURSING — i.e., an oath which contains the curse.

יתן ה’ אותך לאלה THE LORD MAKE THEE AN EXECRATION — i.e. that everybody will curse through thee (i.e., by mention of thy name), saying, “May misfortune come upon you just as it came upon Mrs. so-and-so!”

ולשבעה [THE LORD MAKE THEE AN EXECRATION] AND AN OATH — This means, that everybody will swear through thee (i.e., by mention of thy name) — “If not (i.e., if I am not speaking the truth) may misfortune happen to me just as it happened to Mrs. So-and-so!” In a similar sense it states, (Isaiah 65:15) “and ye shall leave your name as an oath unto my chosen” which means that the righteous take an oath by mention of the punishment that came upon evil-doers. So, too, in reference to the blessing, does it state, (Genesis 12:3) “and through thee (i.e., by mention of thy name) shall bless themselves [all the families of the earth]”; (Genesis 48:20) “By thee shall Israel bless, saying, [God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh]” (Sifrei Bamidbar 14).

את ירכך [WHEN THE LORD DOTH MAKE] THY THIGH [TO FALL, AND THY BELLY TO SWELL] — In uttering the curse that will befall her because of her sin he mentions the thigh before the belly (whilst in v. 22 the belly is stated to be affected first), because with it (the thigh) she began to sin (cf. Sotah 8b, 9b).

צבה — Understand this as the Targum does: SWOLLEN.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.