Passage Research
Numbers 5 — Sermon Preparation
The camp is kept clean by excluding the ritually unclean; property restitution laws are given; and a ritual ordeal is prescribed for a husband who suspects his wife of adultery. Below is a research summary for Numbers 5, drawn from openly licensed scholarly databases — original-language morphology, classic sermons from the church fathers through the Puritans, and ancient geography data.
- 31
- verses
- 462 / 134
- Hebrew words / lemmas
- 8
- classic sermon excerpts
- 3
- preachers & commentators
Numbers 5 in the Hebrew
Distinctive vocabulary of this chapter, based on original-language morphology.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Strong's | Count | Glosses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אִשָּׁה | ʼishshâh | H802 | 20 | woman |
| כֹּהֵן | kôhên | H3548 | 16 | officiating, priest |
| מַיִם | mayim | H4325 | 11 | water, juice |
| טָמֵא | ṭâmêʼ | H2930 | 9 | foul |
| קִנְאָה | qinʼâh | H7068 | 7 | jealousy, envy |
| מַר | mar | H4751 | 6 | bitter, bitterness |
| אָרַר | ʼârar | H779 | 6 | execrate |
How preachers through history handled this text
8 public-domain excerpts on Numbers 5, from the church fathers to the Puritans.
“This law would make the women of Israel watch against giving cause for suspicion. On the other hand, it would hinder the cruel treatment such suspicions might occasion. It would also hinder the guilty from escaping, and the innocent from coming under just suspicion. When no proof could be brought, the wife was called on to make this solemn appeal to a heart-searching God. No woman, if she were guilty, could say "Amen" to the adjuration, and drink the water after it, unless she disbelieved the truth of God, or defied his justice. …”
— Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise), on Numbers 5:11–31 (Public Domain)
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