Commentaria in Numeros
AND SHALL PUT ON HER HANDS (the woman suspected of adultery) THE SACRIFICE OF REMEMBRANCE.—It is called “of remembrance” because a part of the meal sacrifice, or mincha, was offered to God as a memorial and remembrance that the whole flour or mincha was offered to God through this part of itself. See what was said on Leviticus 2:9. Secondly, and rather, it is called “of remembrance” because, as is added in the Hebrew of verse 15, it is a sacrifice recalling sin, which our Interpreter renders “searching out adultery.”
AND HE HIMSELF (the priest) SHALL HOLD THE MOST BITTER WATERS, UPON WHICH HE HAS HEAPED THE CURSES WITH EXECRATION.—The question: What were the curses uttered and heaped by the priest on the waters? It is likely from verse 21 that these, or the like, were: Be thou accursed water in the name of the Lord; and if this woman has sinned by adultery, enter into her womb and burst it, and make her thigh rot, that she may be an example to all the people.
Verse 19. AND HE SHALL ADJURE HER: IF THOU BE NOT DEFILED, THESE WATERS SHALL NOT HURT THEE.—“Hurt” (nocere) in the ancient syntax governed the accusative: hence it is said in Psalm 26, “He went out from him, and hurt him not.” So Plautus also says: “Swear that you will not hurt the man.”
Verses 20 and 21. BUT IF THOU HAST GONE ASIDE, etc., THE LORD MAKE THEE A CURSE.—This is the second malediction; for the first was of the water, this is of the woman herself. The Hebrew is: the Lord give thee for an execration and an oath in the midst of thy people. “Mayest thou be so wretched and unhappy that this may be the public and common imprecation of men: May it befall thee as it befell that adulteress.”
Verse 22. AND THE WOMAN SHALL ANSWER: AMEN.—Note: The order of this trial, as is plain from the Hebrew, was this. First, the priest uttered the curses over the waters. Secondly, he uttered curses over the woman suspected of adultery, she answering, Amen. Thirdly, he wrote these second curses in a book: then he washed out the writing with the waters of malediction to be given to the woman to drink. Fourthly, he took from her the mincha, namely the fine flour, and of it burned a handful, as the custom was, to the Lord; but the rest he kept for himself. Fifthly, he gave the cursed drink of water to the woman, who, if she was guilty of the crime, her belly swelled and her thigh rotted. The Jews add: and she died; which our Interpreter and the Septuagint also sufficiently signify in verse 21, by the bursting of the womb: and this was done immediately, as it seems. For what Josephus, book 3, chapter 10, obscurely hints, that this penalty was put off for ten months, does not sufficiently agree with Sacred Scripture here, nor with the manner of divine providence and vengeance. For this is wont to work its miracles and judgments most swiftly, especially through signs instituted by itself; above all since by this vengeance the wife’s crime was to be detected, that satisfaction might be given to the jealous husband, who otherwise would have gone on to harass her, indeed would have killed her; to guard against which this trial was instituted by God.
Note: This swelling of the womb and rotting of the thigh were produced not by any power placed in the waters, but only by God for the ceremony employed.
Moreover, by this law and penalty God testified, first, that he is the guardian and avenger of conjugal fidelity, lest jealousy beget dissension, quarrels, brawls and slaughters; second, that he sees, notes and brings to light hidden crimes; third, that adultery is a grave crime, worthy of a public and dreadful penalty, so that wives might be kept to their duty and restrained from impurity by the fear of so grave a punishment. For these adulteries are commonly committed in secret, so that they could hardly be proved at law: hence God here claims the judgment of them for himself. So Vatablus. The Jews add that the same plague was inflicted on the adulterer himself, even if he were hidden; let the credit of that rest with them.
Verses 24 and 25. WHICH WHEN SHE HAS DRUNK, THE PRIEST SHALL TAKE THE SACRIFICE FROM HER HAND.—“Exhauserit,” that is, has drunk, or shall drink. For almost at the same time and moment the woman drank the waters and the priest burned the mincha, so that morally these two were reckoned to be done as at the same time. For the order was that which I stated on verse 22, which our Interpreter also expresses clearly on verse 26, namely that the priest first burned the mincha, and then gave the waters to the woman to drink.
Verse 27. SHALL PASS THROUGH HER.—In Hebrew, “shall enter into her.”
Verse 28. BUT IF SHE BE NOT DEFILED, SHE SHALL BE FREE FROM HARM (that is, unpunished, she shall not be hurt by these waters of malediction: so “innocent” is taken for “unpunished,” Exodus 20:7), AND SHALL BEAR CHILDREN.—The Chaldee renders, “and shall conceive a conception”; the Septuagint, “and shall sow seed,” that is, shall bring forth a son from the seed conceived. God seems here to promise to the innocent wife fruitfulness and children, on account of the suspicion of adultery and the ignominy of this trial, which she, being innocent, has undeservedly suffered.
The Rabbis add and fable that she conceived by miracle without seed, like the Blessed Virgin, as Abulensis, Lyranus and Denis the Carthusian relate and refute.
See here how great a crime adultery is, and how hateful to God and men. Hear holy Job, chapter 31:9: “If my heart hath been deceived upon a woman, or if I have laid wait at my friend’s door, let my wife be the harlot of another. For this is a heinous crime, and a most grievous iniquity. It is a fire that devoureth even to destruction.” Ecclesiasticus 23:25: “Every man that passeth beyond his own bed, despising his own soul, and saying: Who seeth me? Darkness compasseth me about, and the walls cover me, and no man seeth me: whom do I fear? And he knoweth not that his eye seeth all things, for the eyes of the Lord are far brighter than the sun, beholding all the ways of men, and the bottom of the deep. So also every woman that leaveth her husband, and bringeth in an heir by another. For first she hath been unbelieving to the law of the Most High; and secondly she hath offended against her husband; thirdly she hath fornicated in adultery, and hath gotten her children of another man. Her children shall not take root, and her branches shall bring forth no fruit. She shall leave her memory to be cursed, and her infamy shall not be blotted out.”
Geradas the Spartan, being asked what penalty the Spartans inflicted on an adulterer: “There is no adulterer in Sparta,” he said. And when the other pressed, What if there should be one? “He would give,” said he, “a bull so great that, stretching his neck over Taygetus, he could drink from the Eurotas.” The other laughed, saying: It cannot be that so great a bull should be found. “And how,” said Geradas, “should there be an adulterer in Sparta, where luxuries, riches and adventitious adornment of the body are held a disgrace?”
Thales, when an adulterer asked whether he must abjure perjury: “Perjury,” he said, “is not worse than adultery,” as if to say: Why do you ask about perjuring yourself, when you do not hesitate to commit a crime equal to perjury?
Add that adultery is often the cause of murders and parricides. So David, on account of adultery with Bethsabee, committed the murder of Urias. Clytemnestra conspired with Aegisthus the adulterer for the destruction of her husband Agamemnon; and when he was slain, the fury of Orestes was roused against his mother. So Euripides in the Orestes.
Eurydice queen of the Macedonians, wife of Amyntas and mother of Philip, to hand over the kingdom to her adulterer, took off her sons Alexander and Perdiccas by poison; and would have done the same to her husband, had not her daughter discovered the crime. Nay, even the beasts detest and avenge adultery. Hear William of Paris, part 1 of On the Universe, part 3, chapter 8: “In my time,” he says, “a stork, as if convicted of adultery by the scent of her mate, I know not how the male accusing or disclosing her crime, was plucked of her feathers and torn to pieces by the whole multitude, as if she had been judged guilty of adultery by the council or judgment of all.”
The cuckoo is the reproach of birds and men, because it invades the nests and eggs of other birds, broods upon them, and hatches them out, as Pliny testifies, book 10, chapter 9. See what was said on Genesis 38:24.