What Does Numbers 5:30 Mean?
Or when the breath of jealousy passes over him, and he is jealous over his wife, then he stands the woman before the LORD, and the priest does all this instruction to her.
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
Or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law.THE KEY
The man’s jealousy becomes the woman’s ordeal: his inner suspicion is carried into judgment before the LORD.
THE MEANING
Jealousy comes upon the man like a moving force, and the woman is brought before the LORD as the priest carries out the whole instruction upon her. The verse holds an inward force and a woman’s public exposure together. His jealousy initiates the procedure; the verse does not name it as proof of her guilt.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A man’s jealousy is not, by itself, proof of a woman’s guilt; here it initiates a process whose burden falls on her.
THE ROOT
קִנֵּא
qinnē
GROWS FROM
קנא
q-n-ʾ
To be jealous or zealous; to burn with ardent concern.
The verb translated “jealous” shares its root with words for jealousy and zeal. The root carries intense attachment, but does not itself establish whether the suspicion is true; the procedure holds that question.
ALSO GROWS
qin'ah: Jealousy, zeal, ardor.
קִנְאָה
The noun names the same intense force that comes upon the man.
qanna: Jealous, zealous.
קַנָּא
This form is used of fierce zeal for God, showing that the root can name ardent attachment as well as jealousy.
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוח
r-w-ḥ
Breath, wind, or spirit: an unseen movement or force.
Ruach names breath, wind, and spirit in one Hebrew word. Paired with “comes upon him,” it gives jealousy the shape of a moving force passing over a person.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Breath, wind, or spirit.
רוּחַ
These meanings belong to the same word, so “spirit of jealousy” carries the sense of a force in motion.
ravach: To find room, be relieved, or have space.
רָוַח
This related form shows the root’s connection to room and relief, a striking neighboring sense beside the constricting force of jealousy.
תּוֹרָה
torah
GROWS FROM
ירה
y-r-h
To point, direct, or teach.
Torah belongs to a word family about directing and teaching. Here, “all this law” is the full instruction that gives the priest’s action its course.
ALSO GROWS
yarah: To point out, direct, or teach.
יָרָה
The root links the instruction in the verse with showing a direction or course.
moreh: Teacher or instructor.
מוֹרֶה
This branch connects instruction with the one who guides it; here the priest carries out the prescribed process.
THE PATTERN
A disputed or hidden matter is brought before the LORD under an appointed judgment.
Then both men, between whom the strife is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days;Therefore, judge nothing before its season, until the Lord comes, who will light up the hidden things of darkness, and will make visible the plans of the hearts. And then the praise will come to each one from God.THE THREAD
Thus says the LORD of hosts. I burned with great zeal for Zion, and with great heat I burned for her.The same q-n-ʾ root names the LORD’s fierce zeal for Zion, showing that it carries ardent attachment. In Numbers, that intensity rises in a man, and the rest of the verse places its consequences under a prescribed judgment.
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