Numbers 5:17
And he shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and he shall cast a little earth of the pavement of the tabernacle into it.
Open Numbers 5:17 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- assumetque aquam sanctam in vase fictili, et pauxillum terræ de pavimento tabernaculi mittet in eam.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ λήμψεται ὁ ἱερεὺς ὕδωρ καθαρὸν ζῶν ἐν ἀγγίῳ ὀστρακίνῳ, καὶ τῆς γῆς τῆς οὔσης ἐπὶ τοῦ ἐδάφους τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου, καὶ λαβὼν ὁ ἱερεὺς ἐμβαλεῖ εἰς τὸ ὕδωρ·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְלָקַ֧ח הַכֹּהֵ֛ן מַ֥יִם קְדֹשִׁ֖ים בִּכְלִי חָ֑רֶשׂ וּמִן הֶֽעָפָ֗ר אֲשֶׁ֤ר יִהְיֶה֙ בְּקַרְקַ֣ע הַמִּשְׁכָּ֔ן יִקַּ֥ח הַכֹּהֵ֖ן וְנָתַ֥ן אֶל הַמָּֽיִם
Haydock's commentary
On verses 17 to 18
Holy water, destined for sacred uses, which is called most bitter, ver. 18, (Menochius) and cursed, (ver. 22,) on account of the imprecations used to detect the guilty. (Worthington)
Earth, to shew the woman, that if she had been unfaithful, she deserved to be trodden upon as dung, Ecclesiasticus ix. 10.
Head, that she may remember all is naked before the Lord. (Menochius)
Hebrew may signify, "he shall cut the hair of her head," (see Leviticus x. 6.; Calmet) or take off her veil. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] iii. 10.) (Haydock)
Remembrance, by which God was requested to manifest the truth, either by punishing or by rewarding the woman, ver. 15, 28. (Menochius)
Bitter, either on account of the wormwood, or because of their effects on the guilty. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Jerome Against the Pelagians, Book I
xxviii. 15, 22, xxix. 5, v. 11, 17 . Offerings at the feast.
St Ephrem the Syrian Ephraim Syrus: Three Homilies, On Our Lord
6. But Israel crucified our Lord, on the plea that verily He was seducing us from the One God. But they themselves used constantly to wander away from the One God through their many idols. While then they imagine they crucify Him Who seduces them from the One God, they are found to be led away by Him from all idols to the One God; to the end that because they did not voluntarily learn of Him that He is God, they might by compulsion learn of Him that He is God; when the good which had accrued to them through Him should accuse them concerning the evil which their hands had done. Thus even though the tongue of the oppressors denied, yet the help with which they were helped convicted them. For grace loaded them beyond their power, so that they should be ashamed, while laden with Thy blessings, to deny Thy person. …