Numbers 5:23
And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and shall wash them out with the most bitter waters, upon which he hath heaped the curses,
Open Numbers 5:23 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Scribetque sacerdos in libello ista maledicta, et delebit ea aquis amarissimis, in quas maledicta congessit,
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ γράψει ὁ ἱερεὺς τὰς ἀρὰς ταύτας εἰς βιβλίον, καὶ ἐξαλείψει εἰς τὸ ὕδωρ τοῦ ἐλεγμοῦ τοῦ ἐπικαταρωμένου·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְ֠כָתַב אֶת הָאָלֹ֥ת הָאֵ֛לֶּה הַכֹּהֵ֖ן בַּסֵּ֑פֶר וּמָחָ֖ה אֶל מֵ֥י הַמָּרִֽים
Haydock's commentary
Book. Hebrew sepher, may also denote a board covered with wax, which was used as one of the most ancient modes of writing. (Calmet)
Josephus says, the priest wrote the name of God on parchment, and washed it out in the bitter waters.
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 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. …