NOTES for Num 5:1-31

Before us is an interesting and very ancient way of investigating a wife's fidelity - the so-called ordeal, or 'judgment of God.' In such cases the suspect, whose guilt could not be proved in a human court, was subjected to various tests in order to learn whether God would help him and thereby reveal his guilt or innocence.

This method was used in virtually all ancient pagan cultures, and the fact that its use was recognized as not contradicting God's commandments should lead us to think that the practice itself contains a certain truth about God and the human being. Of course, like every pagan practice, it underwent certain distortions; yet the awareness that God's judgment is more righteous than human judgment leads us to an understanding of Christ's commandment not to judge (Matt 7:1) and to entrusting every judgment into God's hands (Rom 12:19) - for God always knows the circumstances of a case far better than we do.