Numbers 5:28

Summary

The verse describes the alternative outcome to the ordeal described in the preceding verses: if the woman has not made herself unclean, she is pure, and two consequences follow — she becomes free (from the curse/oath) and she will be able to bear offspring. The syntax presents a conditional clause followed by a chain of two sequential outcomes.

Key words

• nit.me.'Ah ("she has made herself unclean", H2930A) — niphal perfect, expressing a passive/reflexive completed state; negated here (lo', H3808) to set the condition.
• te.ho.Rah ("[is] pure", H2889) — feminine adjective describing the woman's state, paired with the independent pronoun hi' ("she", H1931) for emphasis.
• ni.ke.Tah ("she will be free", H5352) — niphal sequential perfect (vav-consecutive on a perfect form), continuing the narrative sequence begun by the condition; passive/reflexive sense, "she will be cleared/exempted."
• niz.re.'Ah ("she will be impregnated", H2232) — niphal sequential perfect of the root meaning "to sow"; unusual construction combining a passive verb with its own cognate object.
• Za.ra' ("seed", H2233H) — masculine singular noun functioning as a cognate accusative to niz.re.'Ah, literally "she will be sown [with] seed."

What the text says

The verse opens with the conditional particle 'im ("if", H0518A) negated by lo' ("not", H3808), setting up the contrary case to the unclean scenario treated earlier. The predicate nit.me.'Ah ("she has made herself unclean", H2930A) is a niphal perfect, a passive/reflexive form indicating a completed state rather than an ongoing action — the negation asserts that this state did not occur. The clause is reinforced by u.te.ho.Rah hi' ("and pure [is] she", H2889 + H1931), where the independent pronoun hi' gives emphasis to the subject, underscoring her purity as a settled fact rather than an incidental note.

The two following verbs, ni.ke.Tah ("she will be free", H5352) and niz.re.'Ah ("she will be impregnated", H2232), are both niphal sequential perfects, a verbal chain that marks consequence following from the established condition. Both carry the niphal's passive/reflexive force: the woman is not depicted as the agent but as the one to whom the action of clearing and of "being sown" happens. The final word Za.ra' ("seed", H2233H) stands as a cognate accusative to niz.re.'Ah, producing the somewhat unusual phrase "she will be sown [with] seed" — a construction built on the same root as the verb itself.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew ni.ke.Tah ("she will be free", H5352) is rendered in the LXX as ἀθῴα ("innocent/guiltless"), shifting the nuance from release/exemption toward legal innocence. For niz.re.'Ah zara ("she will be impregnated [with] seed"), the LXX uses the active ἐκσπερματιεῖ σπέρμα ("she will sow seed"), converting the Hebrew passive construction into an active one. The Vulgate departs further with faciet liberos ("she will make/produce children"), abandoning the "seed" imagery entirely in favor of a result-oriented phrase. The Spanish RV1909 ("será fecunda," "she will be fruitful") and BSB ("able to conceive children") likewise interpret the outcome rather than reproducing the Hebrew's passive, seed-based phrasing.