The Sotah Ritual In Ancient Israel

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s of the crime.
A significant aspect of life in the Ancient Near East was the importance of the family line. One of the most frightening ideas in the Bible is the punishment of karet, an Israelite’s being cut off from the community. This is understood as early death and childlessness, or the death of one’s descendants . Such an event could result from an unfaithful wife conceiving a son with the adulterer. In this case, the real husband would unknowingly raise a child who is not of his line. Because of this, the series of descendants would be disrupted, and the husband’s lineage might die out.
This idea of karet is useful in understanding one aspect of the sotah ritual. If the woman is guilty of adultery, the “bitter water” is supposed to cause her “thigh to sag and [your] belly to distend.” This is generally interpreted as meaning that she would become unable to conceive a child. On the other hand, if the woman is innocent, Numbers 5:27-28 states: weniqqetāh wenizre’āh zara’. “She will be cleared and she shall retain seed.” Not only is the woman proven innocent, but also she does not loose the ability to bear children. By being able to continue to bear children, she continues the bloodline of the family, and therefore does not suffer the possibility of ending the family line, associated with the idea of karet. The examples of a guilty woman apparently experiencing a forced abortion from the water ordeal and an innocent woman retaining her seed both relate to the previously mentioned concept of karet.
Another reason behind the Israelites’ aversion to this crime is the belief in the importance of purity. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, the reader can find examples of G-d both telling the Israelites not to do various things for fear of them becoming impure, as well as to do other things, in order to regain their purity. The fact that adultery causes impurity is attested to in several are...