Does this sound like A spell?Help me understand,bible scholars.

[BlackMagicalCat]

Numbers 5 12-,,,Speak unto the children of Israel,If any mans wife go aside,and commit a trespass against him,

13 And a man lie with her carnally,(sex)and it be hid from the eyes of her husband,and be kept close,and she be defiled,and there be no wittness against her,niether she be taken with the manner,(she didnt get caught),,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,14 And the spirit of jeolousy come upon him,(he suspects soomething)and he be jeolous of his wife,,,,,,,,,15 then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest 16 and the priest shall set her before the Lord 17 and shall take the holy water in an earthen vessel,and of the dust that is in the floor of the temple,and put it into the water,,,,,,,18 and shall set the women before the Lord and uncover the womans head,,,,,,19 and charge her by an oath,,,If no man hath lain with you,,be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse, 20 But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband,,,,the Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people,when the Lord doeth make thy thigh to rot,and thy belly to swell,22, and this water ,,that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowells to make thy belly to swell,and thy thigh to rot,and the woman shall say,,amen,amen. 23And the priest shall write these curses in a book,and he shall blot them out with the bitter water,and cause the woman to drink the bitter water,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,wheww,finally done.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Dear Lord,I didnt know you had a book of cursing,is that like the book of shadows?,,,And this sounds like a spell,really,it does,,,it sounds like one and looks like one,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Please dont be angry with me Lord,but this sounds horid!! If I was the woman,I would tell the priest,you drink it! Then I would divorce my husband,get the kids,and go join the cananites. Please dont be mad at me for asking you this,,,but,,where is the man? The man the woman cheated with? Why isnt the priest casting a spell on him,?Why just the woman?,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,You know I love you lord,and I read this last night in my truck,,so please send bible scholars and wise people to help me understand this passage of scripture,,,,,,,,,,,,,I still love you and will sit here and check back latter to see if anyone wants to respond.I hope this is not used to trash you though,but I do think this is a reasonable question.Love you.

[QUEEN OF THE DAMNED]

Why just the woman?,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Because in your religion Eve made the first Sin of the human world, in your religon in ages past, I'm not sure about now, women were taught that they bore original sin from birth because Eve ate the forbidden fruit and that women would never be free from that sin.

[elfmage]

I think you have to take into account here the time and culture as a context. Society was patriarchal, and therefore women were seen as being inferior.

As far as it being a spell... I guess you could call a lot of Biblical things that, but aren't they more the workings of God in some form or another?

[AuntBooPeaceFrog]

Both what Queen and Elfmage said makes sense to me, too...however, I also thought I might offer a couple of thoughts that occured to me while reading these passages...(you already know from our pm messages that while I do find some truth to the Bible, I have a hard time believing it was not tampered with by man, but I know that is not what you are asking for here, so I will try to offer suggestions that will help you in your own religion and keep my personal beliefs out, okay? :hugz: )

The thought that popped into my head when I read this was that it could be because the marital vows are sacred, and it is the woman who took these vows before God to let no man come between them, so while the other man may have done wrong, it is the woman and not him, who broke her promise to her husband and God. Also, I noticed that it does say "if it is hidden from her husband"...to me, this is not just focusing on the sexual misdeed, but on the fact that she is lying to her husband; she's not just breaking the marital vows by committing the act, but she is being untruthful to him about it, so that could be why the other man is not the focus of this curse.

But that is just my humble interpretation :whatgives

I have also looked just now in my Student Bible, the New Internation Version, and it has footnotes inserted into some of the sections...the one here is focused on "5:16 Test For Adultery...The strange test for adultery described here resembles other "trials by ordeal" common then in the Middle East. Presumably, either the emotional reactions of the guilty woman would give her away physiologically (such as a lie detector may), or God would reveal the true results through the outcome of the ordeal. The public trial may have helped to clear the reputation of wives who had been falsely accused by their husbands. There is no biblical record of the procedure actually being used, and the trial described is the only one like it in the Bible."
ok, so I just had another thought...noticing how often it mentions jealousy, perhaps God could also have been making a strange test for the woman, knowing she would be cleared, since she would be falsely accused due to the man's own paranoias or "jealousy"...(isn't the jealousy supposed to be a bad thing?) In this manner, it's almost mocking the man, like going through the motions to shut him up...like this test would be set up to appease him, because God already knew she would pass it, since the accusations were only brought on by the man's jealous imagination...

ok, that's just a couple of ways I thought of...hope it helped a little bit. :wave:

[Morr]

Nope its not a spell..

Its more a set of laws, for Jewish Culture of the time. The one specifically that you mentioned is talking about if a married woman sleeps with a man who is not her husband. There is a procedure described of where the Husband brings the wife to the High Priest along with Sacrifice to Y-H-V-H (food, etc) and the Priest performs a purification of the woman and makes her swear she wont commit adulatry again.

Thats pretty much the gist from my understanding. Not a spell, but rather a purification ceramony to cleanse her sin.

[BlackMagicalCat]

Wow,Im humbled by the responses,thnx I was wondering why there wasnt a ritual for the husband who raped someone and and denied doing it and the jealous suspecting wife making him drink the holy water with temple dust in it to see if he was quilty.So his belly would swell and his thiegh rot,.You guys are an answer to me from God.