Numbers 5:31

Summary

This verse closes the ritual procedure for a woman suspected of adultery (the "bitter water" ordeal described in the preceding verses of Numbers 5). It states the legal outcome for each party: the husband is cleared of any guilt, while the woman, if guilty, bears the consequence of her own wrongdoing.

Key words

• ni.Kah ("he will be free", H5352) — niphal (passive/reflexive) verb, sequential perfect. The niphal stem marks the man as the one who is cleared, not the one performing an action; the form continues the narrative sequence begun earlier in the chapter.
• 'a.Von ("iniquity", H5771G) — masculine singular noun, here without the object marker, following the preposition me ("from", H9006), indicating separation: the man is removed from iniquity.
• ti.Sa' ("she will bear", H5375J) — qal (simple active) imperfect verb, marking ongoing or future action; contrasts grammatically with the passive ni.Kah used for the man.
• 'a.vo.Na + h ("iniquity" + "her", H5771G + H9024) — the same noun as in position 6, but here in construct form with a pronominal suffix, producing "her iniquity" — a possessed, personal form rather than a general state.
• Hiv' ("that", H1931) — personal pronoun functioning demonstratively ("that woman"), reinforcing ha-'ishah as a specific, previously identified referent.

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel clauses joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002), each with a subject, a verb, and a term for "iniquity." The first clause uses the niphal verb ni.Kah ("he will be free", H5352) with the preposition me ("from", H9006) governing the bare noun 'a.Von ("iniquity", H5771G): the man's relation to iniquity is expressed as detachment or absence — he is removed from it, grammatically passive.

The second clause uses the qal verb ti.Sa' ("she will bear", H5375J), an active verbal form, together with the direct object marker 'et (H0853) and the noun 'a.vo.Na ("iniquity" + "her", H5771G + H9024), which carries a possessive suffix. Here the grammar constructs iniquity as something actively carried and personally attached to the woman, rather than something from which one is separated. The shift from niphal (passive, "freed from") to qal (active, "bears") on the same root-concept noun creates a structural, grammatical contrast between the two subjects' legal positions, achieved without any additional vocabulary marking difference — the contrast lies entirely in stem and suffix choice.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ni.Kah ("he will be free", H5352) as ἀθῷος ἔσται ("will be innocent/guiltless"), and ti.Sa' ("she will bear", H5375J) as λήμψεται ("will receive/take"), using ἁμαρτίας/ἁμαρτίαν ("sin") where the Hebrew has 'a.von ("iniquity", H5771G) in both clauses. The Vulgate similarly uses absque culpa ("without fault") for the man and recipiet ("will receive") for the woman's iniquitatem ("iniquity"), aligning closely with the LXX's "receive/take" sense rather than the more physical "bear/carry" nuance available in the Hebrew nasa' (H5375J).