Numbers 5:16,17 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

And the priest, shall bring her near, and set her, &c.— Read, shall bring it near, and set it, &c. see Numbers 5:18. The holy water, in the next verse, means the water from the laver, which is called holy, as being appropriated to the use of the sanctuary. Dust was to be used as expressive of sorrow and affliction; see Job 2:12. Nehemiah 9:1 and being the dust of the sanctuary, it taught her, says Ainsworth, to fear judgment from the Lord; (see Wagenseil in Sota, chap. i. p. 6.) while the means used clearly witness the miraculousness of the fact.

Numbers 5:16-17

16 And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD:

17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water: