Numbers 5:23

Num 5:23 And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot [them] out with the bitter water:

Ver. 23. Shall write these curses in a book.] To show, that the word written should cause the water thus to work, according to the cleanness or uncleanness of the party. See 2Co 2:16. {See Trapp on "2Co 2:16"}

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.

5:23-24 The symbolism of drinking disturbing words is repeated in Ezek 2:8–3:3 and Rev 10:8-11.

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

Shall wash the curses, which are written, into the water in the vessel.

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

write these curses in a book--The imprecations, along with her name, were inscribed in some kind of record--on parchment, or more probably on a wooden tablet.

blot them out with the bitter water--If she were innocent, they could be easily erased, and were perfectly harmless; but if guilty, she would experience the fatal effects of the water she had drunk.

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 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.

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

23. a book] The Heb. term sçpher denotes anything which can receive writing, e.g. a strip of parchment. Here it is something from which the written words of the curse can be washed or wiped out into the water. The curse is considered to be in this manner literally conveyed to the potion. The eating of written charms is a frequent practice in Thibet and India for the cure of disease. In Egypt ‘the most approved mode of charming away sickness or disease is to write certain passages of the Korân on the inner surface of an earthenware cup or bowl; then to pour in some water, and stir it until the writing is quite washed off: when the water, with the sacred words thus infused in it, is to be drunk by the patient’ (Waddell, The Buddhism of Tibet, quoted by Gray, p. 54).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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, or scrape them off of the parchment into it.

(y) Misnah, ut supra, (Sotah, c. 2) sect. 3.

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

Book. Hebrew sepher, may also denote a board covered with wax, which was used as one of the most ancient modes of writing. (Calmet) --- Josephus says, the priest wrote the name of God on parchment, and washed it out in the bitter waters.

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).

These curses, wherewith she cursed herself, to which peradventure her name was added.

In a book, i.e. in a scroll of parchment, which the Hebrews commonly call a book, as Deu 24:1; 2Sa 11:11; Isa 39:1.

Blot them out with the bitter water, or, rase or scourge them out, and cast then into the bitter water. Whereby it was signified, that if she was innocent, the curses should be blotted out and come to nothing, and if she were guilty, she should find in her the effects of this water which she drunk, after the words of this curse; had been scraped and put in.

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

23. Write these curses in a book — Hebrew, the book, as if there were a particular scroll on which curses were written.

Blot them… with… bitter water — Hebrew, Wipe them into the bitter water. This was a symbolic act for conveying the curse to the water. The Arab of to day thinks this is the best way to take a prescription. The charm-worshippers in Africa habitually seek the utmost efficacy of a written charm in the same manner. See the note on Num_5:11.

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

In a book. On a roll. Blot them out with the bitter water. Rather, "wash them off into the bitter water," in order to transfer the venom of the curses to the water. Exaleiqei ... eiv to udwr , Septuagint. The writing on the scroll was to be washed off in the vessel of water. Of course the only actual consequence was that the ink was mixed with the water, but in the imagination of the people, and to the frightened conscience of a guilty woman, the curses were also held in solution in the water of trial. The direction was founded on a world-wide superstition, still prevalent in Africa, and indeed amongst most semi-barbarous peoples. In the "Romance of Setnan," translated by Brugsch. Bey, the scene of which is laid in the time of Rameses the Great, a magical formula written on a papyrus leaf is dissolved in water, and drunk with the effect of imparting all its secrets to him that drinks it. So in the present day, by a similar superstition, do sick Mahomedans swallow texts of the Koran; and so in the middle ages the canonized Archbishop Edmund Rich (1240) on his death-bed washed a crucifix in water and drank it, saying, "Ye shall drink water from the wells of salvation."

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

In a book - That is, in a scroll of parchment, which the Hebrews commonly call a book. Blot them out - Or scrape them out and cast them into the bitter water. Whereby it was signified, that if she was innocent, the curses should be blotted out and come to nothing; and, if she were guilty, she should find in her the effects of this water which she drank, after the words of this curse had been scraped and put in.

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

he must wash away the written curses

This means that he is to wash the ink off of the scroll.

the written curses

This can be stated in active form. AT: "the curses he has written" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

scroll

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.