“The priest will then present her to stand trial before the Lord.
Parallel translations
- WEB The priest shall bring her near, and set her before Yahweh;
- KJV And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD:
- BSB The priest is to bring the wife forward and have her stand before the LORD.
- NKJV ‘And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord.
- NASB ‘Then the priest shall bring her forward and have her stand before the Lord,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The priest brings the woman near and sets her before the Lord. The matter is placed directly in God's presence for judgment.
Overview
By setting the woman before the Lord, the priest entrusts the verdict to God rather than to human suspicion. This emphasizes that the true judge of hidden sin is God Himself. Standing before the Lord, the unseen truth of the heart is exposed to the One who searches all things.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Lev 1:3“‘If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without defect. He shall offer it at the door of the Tent of Meeting, that he may be accepted before Yahweh.
- Rev 2:22–23Behold, I will throw her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great oppression, unless they repent of her works.
- Jer 17:10“I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
- Heb 13:4Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 5:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.