Numbers 5:22

Summary

Numbers 5:22 describes the closing lines of the priest's oath given to a woman suspected of adultery: the "waters that bring a curse" will enter her body, causing physical effects on her belly and thigh, and she must respond by saying "amen" twice, ratifying the oath.

Key words

• va.'u ("they will go", H0935G) — qal sequential perfect, plural, agreeing with ha-mayim ("the waters"); continues the narrative chain of the oath's consequences.
• m.'a.re.Rim ("bring a curse", H0779) — piel participle, masculine plural, functioning as an attributive clause modifying "the waters": literally "the waters, the ones causing-curse."
• tz.Bot ("make swell", H6638) — hiphil infinitive with prefix la- ("to"), expressing the purpose/result of the waters' entry: causing the belly to swell.
• n.Pil ("make fall", H5307G) — hiphil infinitive with prefix la-, parallel to the previous infinitive, expressing a second result: causing the thigh to fall.
• 'a.Men ("amen", H0543) — interjection repeated twice, marking the woman's verbal ratification of the oath's terms.

What the text says

The verse opens with a narrative vav attached to va.'u ("and they will go/enter"), a sequential perfect that continues the oath formula begun in the preceding verses. The subject is ha-mayim ha-me'arerim ha-'elleh — "these waters, the ones bringing a curse" — where the piel participle m.'a.re.Rim functions adjectivally, describing the waters' curse-bearing nature rather than naming a separate action. These waters are said to enter be-me'ayikh ("into your inward parts"), a construct noun phrase with the second-person feminine singular suffix -kh, directly addressing the woman under oath.

The two purpose clauses that follow — la-tzvot beten ("to make a belly swell") and ve-la-npil yarekh ("and to make a thigh fall") — both use hiphil infinitives prefixed with la-, a grammatical pattern indicating the intended or resulting effect of the water's entry. Both beten ("belly") and yarekh ("thigh") are indefinite nouns in the Hebrew, syntactically distinct from the earlier definite "these waters."

The verse closes with another sequential perfect, 'a.me.Rah ("she will say"), introducing the woman's response: the doubled interjection 'a.Men 'a.Men, formally sealing the oath's conditions upon her.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the plural ha-mayim ("the waters") with a singular τὸ ὕδωρ ("the water"), and translates la-npil yarekh ("to make the thigh fall") as διαπεσεῖν μηρόν ("to waste away the thigh"), shifting the verb's image from "falling" to "wasting." The Vulgate similarly departs from "fall" with putrescat femur ("let the thigh rot/decay"), introducing a notion of decay not present in the Hebrew infinitive n.Pil. The English BSB reflects this same shift with "shrivel."