Does Numbers 5:11-31 support abortion?

Whenever the topic of abortion comes up you can be sure someone will claim that ”there is an abortion procedure described in Numbers 5:11-31”. Is this true? You can read the whole passage here, but it is long, so let’s just look at the pertinent parts.

12 “Speak to the people of Israel, If any man’s wife goes astray and breaks faith with him, …

14 and if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself, 15 then the man shall bring his wife to the priest … 16 “And the priest shall bring her near and set her before the LORD.

17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water…

19 Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, ‘If no man has lain with you, … be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse. 20 But if you have gone astray, … then’ … ‘the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the LORD makes your thigh fall away and your body swell. 22 May this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away.’ And the woman shall say, ‘Amen, Amen.’

23 “Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and wash them off into the water of bitterness. 24 And he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, …

27 And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people.

28 But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children.

So what is going on here?

First of all this is all about a man being jealous or suspicious that his wife has been unfaitful. It has absolutely nothing to do with abortions or even causing a misscarriage. There is not even a single indication that the woman is even pregnant.

So the jealous husband takes her to the priest. The priest does a weird ritual involving water mixed with dust and ink and saying some oaths.

There is nothing about this that has anything to do with abortions. Does water cause abortions? Does dust cause abortions? Does even ink cause abortions? Definitely not. However the woman makes an oath before God that she may be cursed if she has been unfaithful. So any effect of this ritual would be coming from a divine origin, not from anything she has ingested.

If the woman is guilty she is punished directly by God with what appears to be uterine prolapse. “Her thigh falls away”, “thigh” being a euphemism for her uterus, and her womb is bloated. A bloated abdomen is also a common symptom of uterine prolapse. Again this has nothing to do with either abortions or misscarriages, there is no indication that the woman is pregnant, nor is it the topic of the passage.

However if the woman is innocent, she will be blessed with pregnancy. Because being pregnant and fruitful is a great blessing. So one of the two outcomes of this ritual would be the polar opposite of an abortion.

Whoever came up with this myth lacks basic reading comprehension skills. Please stop spreading this false claim.

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