Verses 12-14
12-14. If… wife go aside Be faithless to her marriage vow.
No witness If the crime could be proven by witnesses the adulteress was to be put to death. Leviticus 18:20; Leviticus 20:10.
Taken with the manner This means taken in the very act, as in John 8:4. The Authorized Version very properly puts all these words in italics except taken, for they are not in the Hebrew. The phrase comes from an old English law term long obsolete, implying taken with the evidence of guilt fresh upon him: thus a thief was said to be taken with the mainor (Latin, in manu) when he was caught with the thing stolen upon his person, that is, in his hand.
The spirit of jealousy come upon him This form of expression would indicate that the affection did not arise within the heart, but came upon the man as an objective force. But jealousy cannot be a personality, though it may be inspired by the evil spirit. We prefer to view the phrase as a Hebraism for the strong and vehement feeling of jealousy, which frequently gains as complete a mastery over the mind as did the demons in the time of Christ. The study of Shakspeare’s impersonations of jealousy will justify the Hebrew strength of expression.
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