What is Numbers 5:19-21 talking about? And why are we talking about this verse? Let’s examine and expose the Truth of God in God’s Word.
First, what does Numbers 5:19-21say?
“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.”
Is this about abortion or miscarriage?
This verse is dealing with the consequences of a wife having adulterous sexual relations with another man — an affair, and concealing it from her husband. But atheists and pro-abortionists try to use it to accuse God and claim abortion is condoned by God.
Nowhere in these verses is elective abortion by a mother or father condoned. Furthermore, it is not clear that this is a miscarriage, since only a few translations use the word miscarry. The context better fits a curse of infertility or barrenness for having despised God’s laws and the holy covenant of marriage between a husband and wife.
The vast majority of translations (ESV, NKJV, KJV, NASB, Young’s Literal, etc.) say nothing of miscarriage. Only the NIV (and lesser recognized REB, and NEB) use miscarriage language, which is not explicit in the Hebrew text.
But even if this text is referring to a miscarriage, it is a judgment from God — a consequence of sin, and God has the right to take any life He chooses. The difference between abortion and a divinely decreed premature birth is significant. We do not have the right to take innocent life, even the life of the pre-born babies. But God has every right, since He is the Creator of all things, and Judge over all.
Furthermore, the baby, taken early, would not have his or her mother’s sin on themselves. God would take care of and nurture the baby in Heaven.
Children have been taken to God early as a punishment to the parents. In King David’s case, when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and even murdered her husband, Uriah, to cover up his crime, the Lord’s judgment included taking the life of the child. This proves that children — even children born out of wedlock — are blessings to the Lord and the parents.
What’s the intention?
Sometimes a question about this verse is innocent and well-meaning, where a new Christian wants to understand God’s character against the backdrop of a permissive culture. Other times, when we proclaim the goodness of God to bring people to saving faith in the love of Jesus Christ, the spirit of antiChrist will rise up against Christ, His Word, and the Church with something like “God is evil and unloving… what do you say about Lev. 27:29?”. Or when defending the lives of the unborn and repudiating the abortion acceptance cult following today — which is cheering the elective act of murdering children inside the womb, someone will point to verses like Numbers 5:19-21 and say, “See, even God isn’t against abortion!”.
What’s behind this? Well, the enemies of God operate on two premises — two strategies — to deny the goodness of God and to deny the truth of God’s Word, the Bible.
The first premise is to insult or curse God, calling Him evil and unloving. This is an “in-your-face” attack, and often used to try to destroy a Christian’s faith by sowing doubt.
The second premise is to twist the scriptures or character of God, claiming God is permissive of sin or actually approves of sin (though they are packaging the behavior as not sinful), to try to deceive Christian’s into accepting sinful behavior while still claiming to be a Christian.
Both premises are false and in error. And you will see that God is neither evil, nor sinful, nor unloving, nor unjust. He is, however, very conditionally angry at times (the Bible uses the word “wrathful” – an overflow of fuming wrath) toward certain humans for specific and just reasons. It is precisely because God is love that his anger and justice is so fierce and swift.
