Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.
Parallel translations
- WEB The man shall be free from iniquity, and that woman shall bear her iniquity.’”
- BSB The husband will be free from guilt, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”
- NKJV Then the man shall be free from iniquity, but that woman shall bear her guilt.’ ”
- NASB The man, moreover, will be free of guilt, but that woman shall bear the consequences of her guilt.’ ”
- NLT The husband will be innocent of any guilt in this matter, but his wife will be held accountable for her sin.”
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 husband bears no guilt for invoking the ordeal, while a guilty wife bears her own iniquity.
Overview
This closing verse clears the husband of wrongdoing in seeking the rite and places responsibility squarely on the guilty party. It establishes that each person answers to God for their own sin, a principle running through Scripture. Ultimately all bear iniquity until it is borne away by Christ, who took our guilt upon Himself.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Lev 20:10And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
- Rom 2:8–9But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
- Ezek 18:4Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
- Ps 37:6And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.
- Lev 20:17–20And if a man shall take his sister, his father’s daughter, or his mother’s daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.
- Num 9:13But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the LORD in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 5:31 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.