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jmowreader

(50,559 posts)
Mon May 9, 2022, 03:10 PM May 2022

This is what the Bible really says about abortion

My friends, turn in the Good Book to the Book of Numbers, Chapter 5, Verse 11, and read along with me:

Let us pray.

Then the Lord said to Moses,

“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him

so that another man has sexual relations with her, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act),

and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure—

then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah[a] of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder-offering to draw attention to wrongdoing.

“‘The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord.

Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water.

After the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse.

Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you.

But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”—

here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell.

May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”

“‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.”

“‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water.

He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her.

The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the Lord and bring it to the altar.

The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial[c] offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water.

If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse.

If, however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.

This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray and makes herself impure while married to her husband,

or when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the LORD and is to apply this entire law to her.

11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Layzeebeaver

(1,624 posts)
1. When and where...
Mon May 9, 2022, 03:22 PM
May 2022

…will we see the first fertility and family planning clinics implement this procedural fix?

doc03

(35,340 posts)
2. What if the bible said if the husband goes astray
Mon May 9, 2022, 03:59 PM
May 2022

and is unfaithful to his wife, the priest shall cuteth off his penis. Would the SCOTUS go for that?

jmowreader

(50,559 posts)
3. Men could never go astray
Mon May 9, 2022, 05:33 PM
May 2022

It was legal to have all the wives you wanted. If your wife couldn’t deal with your sexual appetite, you’d just marry another wife.

Of course, if a woman married two different men they’d kill her.

LeftInTX

(25,356 posts)
4. The bible is not the constitution and I don't know WTF any of that means!
Mon May 9, 2022, 05:34 PM
May 2022

IOW: Subject to interpretation by any and all!

jmowreader

(50,559 posts)
6. What it means...
Mon May 9, 2022, 05:37 PM
May 2022

The Hard Right claims the Bible is totally against abortion. In reality, the only thing directly related to abortion in the Bible is a very detailed procedure for performing one.

LeftInTX

(25,356 posts)
9. They can just say, "It's so ancient that it's obsolete"
Mon May 9, 2022, 05:46 PM
May 2022

There is the issue of polygamy..It was legal in the old testament.


Apparently, Jesus didn't like polygamy too much, but who knows?

Pathwalker

(6,598 posts)
10. Would you please state where in the Bible it details that?
Mon May 9, 2022, 05:50 PM
May 2022

I could really use that knowledge. "Asking for a friend".

Thank you.

Caliman73

(11,738 posts)
7. No offense to the OP... It doesn't matter what the Bible says about abortion.
Mon May 9, 2022, 05:42 PM
May 2022

Certainly if you are a Christian, it may matter in your PERSONAL life, but we make law based on secular methods or reason, logic, and data, or at least we are supposed to.

The Bible has no place in the law. It is a book of Christian and Jewish mythology. Religions based on Judaism and Christian mythology are free to use the Bible in their personal lives. If they do not want to get an abortion, DON'T GET AN ABORTION, just keep your book out of the lives of others who don't follow, or don't care and want to terminate their pregnancy.

Use the Bible and religion to guide YOUR OWN actions, not to impose your beliefs onto others.

tanyev

(42,559 posts)
11. The thing that always jumps out at me from this passage is that the man merely has to suspect.
Mon May 9, 2022, 06:06 PM
May 2022

Last edited Mon May 9, 2022, 07:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Or say he suspects. This is the “remedy” for cases in which she was not caught doing anything wrong and there are no witnesses saying she did anything wrong. Just one ticked off suspicious husband.

I wonder how often this was used to try and get rid of a wife that was no longer wanted—-for whatever reason.

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