What Does Numbers 5:27 Mean?
And when he has given her to drink the water, then, if she is soiled and has crossed over against her husband, the water that brings the curse enters into her, and becomes bitter; her belly swells, and her thigh falls; and the woman becomes a curse among her people.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people.THE KEY
The water’s curse and its bitterness echo through two distinct Hebrew roots that share the sound of doubled resh, before the woman is publicly marked by the ordeal.
THE MEANING
The verse presents a conditional ordeal: if the woman is defiled and has betrayed her husband, the water enters her, brings bodily harm, and leaves her named a curse among her people. The swelling, the fallen thigh, and the public stigma are stated plainly; the violence remains physical and communal.
THE ROOT
הַמַּיִם הַמְאָרְרִים
hamayim hame'arerim
GROWS FROM
ארר
ʾ-r-r
To curse or pronounce a curse.
“curse-bearing waters” in this verse is hamayim hame'arerim. The water is named with a form of the root for cursing. The verse then pairs it with לְמָרִים (lemarim, to bitterness): ארר (ʾ-r-r, curse) and מרר (m-r-r, bitterness) are distinct roots, but their doubled resh makes the threat echo in sound as it moves from the water into the woman’s body.
ALSO GROWS
ʾārūr: One under a curse.
אָרוּר
The passive form connects the water’s cursing force with the woman’s eventual status in the ordeal.
me'arrer: One who pronounces a curse.
מְאָרֵר
This active form keeps the water’s name tied to the act of cursing.
לְמָרִים
lemarim
GROWS FROM
מרר
m-r-r
To be bitter or make bitter.
The Hebrew says the waters enter her לְמָרִים (lemarim, to bitterness), joining the quality of the water to the ordeal’s bodily consequence. The repeated resh echoes the separate curse root, binding the water’s bitter character to its stated threat without making the roots identical.
ALSO GROWS
mar: Bitter.
מָר
This adjective names the quality carried by the water in the verse.
merorim: Bitter herbs.
מְרֹרִים
The same root gives bitterness a tangible, tasted form elsewhere in scripture.
וַתִּמְעֹל מַעַל
vatim'ol ma'al
GROWS FROM
מעל
m-ʿ-l
To act unfaithfully or breach trust.
“crossed over” in this verse is vatim'ol ma'al. The Hebrew repeats the same root as verb and noun: she “acts a breach.” That doubled wording makes the charge sound like an act of betrayed trust, not merely a vague violation.
ALSO GROWS
ma'al: To act treacherously or break trust.
מָעַל
This verbal form names the alleged act directly.
ma'al: A breach of trust or unfaithful act.
מַעַל
The noun form repeats the charge’s root, giving the phrase its emphasis.
THE PATTERN
What is hidden can become legible through an outward sign, in the body, in speech, or before a community.
And the stricken man in whom the stroke is, his garments shall be torn, and his head unbound, and he shall wrap his upper lip, and shall call out, Soiled, soiled.For there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be known.And the tongue is fire, a world of crookedness. It is set among our limbs, staining the whole body and setting the wheel of becoming ablaze, and it is lit by Gehenna.THE THREAD
And they came to Marah, and could not drink its waters, for they were bitter; so its name was called Marah, bitterness.Both passages describe water as bitter through the Hebrew root מרר (m-r-r, to be bitter). Exodus names the bitterness in water that cannot be drunk; Numbers uses that same root as the ordeal’s bitter consequence within the woman.
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