TerryTryon

Numbers 5:11-31:
And the LORD said to Moses, "Say to the people of Israel, If any man's wife goes astray and acts unfaithfully against him, if a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her since she was not taken in the act and if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself; or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself; then the man shall bring his wife to the priest and bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it and put no frankincense on it, for it is a cereal offering of jealousy, a cereal offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance.
"And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD and the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and unbind the hair of the woman's head, and place in her hands the cereal offering of remembrance, which is the cereal offering of jealousy. And in his hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse. Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, 'If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanness, while you were under your husband's authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse. But if you have gone astray, though you are under your husband's authority, and if you have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband has lain with you, then (let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse, and say to the woman) 'the LORD make you an execration and an oath among your people, when the LORD makes your thigh fall away and your body swell; may the water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your body swell and your thigh fall away.' And the woman shall say, 'Amen, Amen.'
"Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and wash them off into the water of bitterness; and he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain. And the priest shall take the cereal offering of jealousy out of the woman's hand, and shall wave the cereal offering before the LORD and bring it to the altar; and the priest shall take a handful of the cereal offering, as its memorial portion, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water. And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has acted unfaithfully against her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her body shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become an execration among her people. But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children.
"This is the law in cases of jealousy when a wife, though under her husband's authority, goes astray and defiles herself, or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man and lie is jealous of his wife; then he shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law. The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”

How did this little sick, perverted piece of misogyny and sympathetic magic get into the bible? Do the Bible freaks believe it works? Do they still perform the ritual? Why is it so obscure among bible critics? It seems to lay out all the absurdities of the bible in one place in plain view. I think atheists should demand that the biblical literalists to defend it at every opportunity. (Then there is the bible test for leprosy.)

[ December 10, 2002: Message edited by: TerryTryon ]</p>

thebeave

That's only the tip of the iceberg. Misogony is the name of the game in the Bible. Women who are having their periods ("issues") are to be treated like they have some horrible communicable disease. It's hard to believe any woman would still want to be a Christian after reading all that nonsense.

idiom

"For for Righteousness is unto the Lord as used menstural cloths."

I love the old KJV renditions.

CX

Hate to break this up all, but methinks this would be better in RRP.

missus_gumby

I may be wrong, but doesn't the passage above describe a divinely sanctioned abortion?

Martin

wildernesse

missus_gumby:

I think you're pretty close. If you look this up in another translation (NLT) it says that if the woman is innocent, then the bitter water won't curse her to be infertile, but if she's guilty then it will.

Something interesting.

--tibac

diana

Actually, it struck me the same way.

If she's lain with another man, part of the fear would be that she might be preggers with a wee one who isn't her hubby's blood. I think this is where at intense pain part is to come in.

And what's "her thigh shall fall away" mean? Sounds like an idiom for "miscarriage," but I may be completely offbase.

d

diana

Now I'm just curious.

Here's the KJV (vv. 27, 28):
Sounds to me like, if the woman was pregnant (defiled), she'd bloat and miscarry (rotting womb), and if she wasn't pregnant, nothing would happen and she'd have proven herself pure. (Of course, if she was pregnant by her hubby and just wasn't showing yet and he got jealous, she was screwed--in the figurative sense. But who is her husband going to believe--her or the priests who insist she miscarried because she cheated on him? He's already brought her there because he's jealous.)

Also, what would happen to a fetus if a woman drank diluted poison (which is often bitter)?

The New Living Translation omits these details altogether (probably because it raises uncomfortable questions concerning God's demanding abortions):
All the rest I can find make a completely nonsensical allusion to her "thigh falling away."

So that means we should have lots of sexually depraved legless women about.

d

(Edited to clarify: my interpretation of scripture is based on what the culture at the time they were written thought important and why, and what the priests were likely to be able to affect with the right chemicals and call "God's Will.")

[ December 11, 2002: Message edited by: diana ]</p>

Bible Humper

LMAO!

The only surprise is that the priest isn't instructed to hop on one foot and wiggle a thigh bone at her.

diana

This is a quote from my favorite translation, the New Revised Standard Version (my favorite because of the eclectic religions represented in the scholars, and the fact that this bible doesn't smooth over those things that might embarrass):

Numbers 5.23-28:
Three points:

1. The water is bitter before the "writing" is dissolved in it. It's already doctored with something designed to abort the fetus.

2. The goal was clearly to provoke an abortion, the assumption being that if she's pregnant, it must have been the milkman.

3. Verse 27 suggests that she'll only feel pain if she's "been defiled" (or in modern terms, is pregnant), but judging from verse 24, the woman was expected to feel pain whether she was pregnant or not.

d