The Jealousy Cocktail

Reading:   Numbers 5:5-31

The largest portion of this chapter deals with adultery and the trial of woman who are suspected of the crime.  When a husband believes his wife has been unfaithful and his heart and mind are racked with the evils of jealousy, he was required to bring forth his wife, along with a few other items, and a jealousy offering would be prepared.  Ultimately the woman would be offered a bitter drink that was prepared for her of the jealousy offering and she was required to drink it. If she refused and admitted her crime she would be immediately divorced and lose her dowry but if she agreed...

NUMBERS 5:27-28

27 And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people. 

28 And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. 

So if a woman drank the jealousy cocktail and was guilty, her stomach would swell and her thigh rot and she would become cursed among the people.  Okay, slightly brutal, harsh even, but what if the woman were innocent, "...then she shall be free, and conceive seed."  Hold up, not sure that is a consolation, what about the evils of jealousy and the idiot husband who falsely accused her, nothing?  He isn't punished at all for false accusations and publicly embarrassing his innocent wife?  No, nothing - ridiculous!  The innocent woman on the other hand is set free (not really though because she is given back to a jealous husband and then required to lay with the accusatory punk in order to conceive - not freedom in my book).

I'm honestly getting a little tired of the male chauvinism in the Old Testament.  It literally seems as though woman were merely tools of men for the purpose of child bearing and rearing.   Even the strong biblical females seem to get lost in the over abundance of multiple wives - for me anyway.  I do hope and believe there is a higher law in place here and that God has a greater vision and plan for women because the constant lesser-than-man undertones are getting quite enervative.

In this chapter, a simple reference to a meaningful punishment for falsely jealous husbands would do wonders for the laws of Moses.  Here is my humble suggestion, a little tweaking of verse 28:

And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be set free of the jealous husband, and shall be wed and conceive seed of a greater man.

Wouldn't that be a just reward for false jealousy...to lose your wife and watch her marry a man much greater than you and then bear children of that man...talk about flaming the fire of jealousy, such a man would surely die.

You know what, maybe that is what the verse is saying.  I truly believe God is a just God and would not have a woman return to such a jealous man.  So, by the term, "...she shall be free," it is quite possible that "free" means released from the bonds of matrimony.  Perception is everything and understanding that a woman caught in such a marriage would be a captive of sorts then freedom would mean escape from the caustic marriage.  And the idea that she, "...shall conceive seed," can then mean she does find love, a better stronger love, and conceives in that happy union, right, of course right - perception my friends!

~Kipling