Hard to Swallow
Comparative commentary by Maryanne Saunders
Numbers 5 outlines rules of purity, sin, and punishment. The separation of unclean things and people and restitution practices are closely followed by what is arguably the most famous part of the chapter.
The Sotah ritual or the ‘ordeal of the bitter water’ is found in Numbers 5:11–31, where it describes the test administered to a married woman accused by her husband of adultery. The practice was later elaborated in the Talmud (Mishnah Sotah) to include the stripping and uncovering of the woman’s hair and breasts. In the ritual, the ‘Sotah’ or suspected unfaithful wife is forced to drink parchment mixed in ‘bitter waters’: if she is innocent this will have no effect on her but if she is guilty her ‘uterus [will] drop, [her] womb [will] discharge’ (Numbers 5:27).
This ritual is not an ‘ordeal’ as that would technically be the judgement of the woman by human juries. Instead, the defendant takes a type of oath (v.21)—an oath in which she puts herself under divine jurisdiction and makes herself subject to punishment beyond the corporal justice system of the religious officials. But the human role remains far from negligible. We see this brought out powerfully in Richard McBee’s depiction of the ritual: it is still very much in the hands of the human judges as they watch on, implicitly approving.
The overriding contrast in the Sotah ritual, and the art depicting it, is between a notion of purity or righteousness and an action which is cruel or perhaps even bloody. Andi Arnowitz brings the human side of the Sotah back into focus with a garment—a piece of clothing that the viewer might imagine wearing themselves.
Faced with the woman’s vulnerability, as it is suggested in both McBee’s and Arnovitz’s works, we are left under no illusion as to the severity of the experience. The punishment has been interpreted as induced miscarriage or abortion by translations such as the New International Version, or as induced barrenness (Grushcow 2019: 276). Furthermore, Norman Snaith’s 1967 commentary names the drinks as ‘Waters of Abortion’ rather than the more familiar ‘Bitter Waters’.
The power of the husband (and to some extent the religious authorities) perhaps cannot be said to be absolute: Rabbi Joshua Kulp in his English commentary on the Mishnah expounds how:
The husband cannot force his wife to undergo the Sotah ritual, a ritual that as we shall see was humiliating and probably frightening for the woman. Her husband must divorce her, and he need not pay her ketubah, but he cannot force her to drink the bitter waters (Kulp 1.3.3).
This perspective is contested but provides an illusion of choice for the accused. However, if the alternative is mortal punishment for admitting adultery, or penury, one may see Sotah as a preferable alternative.
The inclusion of the ordeal in Mary’s story as it is recorded in the Protoevangelium of James and the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, and illuminated in the Ethiopic Amara Gospel Book, provides a fascinating glimpse into the use of this account of the ritual beyond the bounds of Judaism. That Mary’s encounter with the trial is testing but not graphic or violent is perhaps unsurprising in a context where the Blessed Mother of God is the focus.
Although there is a suggestion in the medieval illumination that Joseph too was subjected to the ordeal, as found in Protoevangelium of James and Pseudo-Matthew, in the other depictions one is left wondering why there is no parallel test for men’s faithfulness. Ultimately, there is very little redemption for the Sotah practice in a modern reading or indeed in a modern Jewish context, particularly a feminist one. However, as is witnessed by the artworks shown here, this does not deprive the passage of a profound symbolic afterlife. It is one where the Sotah is multifaceted beyond the label of guilty or innocent.
References
Grushcow, L. 2019. Writing the Wayward Wife (Leiden: Brill)
Kulp, Joshua. 1997–2003. ‘English Explanation of Mishnah Sotah’, available at https://www.sefaria.org/English_Explanation_of_Mishnah_Sotah.1.3.4?lang… [accessed 18 March 2025]
Snaith, Norman H. 1967. New Century Bible Commentary: Leviticus and Numbers (London: Nelson)
