A Test For Adultery

“And the priest shall bring her near and set her before the Lord.” – Numbers 5:16

It’s helpful to know when reading this passage that trials by ordeal were a familiar judicial practice in the ancient world. The guilt or innocence of the accused would be determined by subjecting them to a painful experience, wherein the proof of innocence was life or lack of harm. Historically this has involved walking over hot coals, holding a red-hot iron, dipping a hand into boiling water or oil, or ingestion of poison. In the Code of Hammurabi, if a citizen accused a woman of adultery, the woman would have to jump into the river: if she died, it was proof of her guilt; if she lived, proof of her innocence.

Consider the contrasts here. Instead of any citizen bringing a charge, it had to be the husband. The odds were not stacked against her; she wasn’t considered guilty by default until proven innocent (in fact, one could argue the bias was towards innocence as drinking dusty water doesn’t tend to cause bodily harm). She is brought before a priest, within the tabernacle, in a controlled environment, with a mediator. The process itself was not physically painful. The judgment was in the hands of God, not her husband or other men, and it was definitive, presumably doing more to restore the marital relationship were she innocent, than a more inconclusive ruling by a human court of law. There are elements of redemption, even of protection for women, that one could tease out here. It’s interesting that God does not do away altogether with the culture in which the Israelites lived—he rather chooses to speak into it in this way.

I’m struck by the ritualistic and detailed nature of this passage: this may be the only place in the Bible where specific words for the priest’s prayer is given. I think about the woman, literally taking holiness into her body—holy water, dust from holy ground—which cannot reside together with sinfulness without physical disintegration. I think about her placing her hands into the barley, literally feeling her husband’s jealousy. All so symbolic and sensory. The verb that stands out is “bring”: bring to remembrance, bring her near, bring the offering. “Bring it to the altar” (Numbers 5:25).

We like to keep unseen sins secret, perhaps sexual sin most of all. “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). It’s difficult to take those words seriously without being convicted on some level. There were separate laws for those caught in the act of adultery (Deuteronomy 22:22, Leviticus 20:10), but God goes to the trouble of addressing adultery that is “hidden from the eyes,” “undetected,” where “there is no witness,” because he cares about sexual purity. Our sexual purity is not a private issue. It affects our relationship with God. It affects others, potentially many others, more than we like to consider. Inward jealousies matter. God asks us to bring these matters before him.