Adultery in Halakha Outside of Sotah: Death & Divorce
(י) וְאִ֗ישׁ אֲשֶׁ֤ר יִנְאַף֙ אֶת־אֵ֣שֶׁת אִ֔ישׁ אֲשֶׁ֥ר יִנְאַ֖ף אֶת־אֵ֣שֶׁת רֵעֵ֑הוּ מֽוֹת־יוּמַ֥ת הַנֹּאֵ֖ף וְהַנֹּאָֽפֶת׃
(10) If a man commits adultery with a married woman, committing adultery with another man’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.
ספרי במדבר פיסקא יט, עמ' 23
לא שמענו אלא בזמן שיש לה עדים והתרו בה שהיא במיתה יש לה עדים ולא התרו בה פטורה תהיה מותרת לבעלה? מן המיתה הואיל ופטורה מן המיתה אסורה לבעלה ק"ו לשנבעלה ודאי אמרת ספק נבעלה ספק לא נבעלה איש אשה ובעלה )דברים כד א(. אלא הרי היא בכלל שנאמר כי יק
Sifre Bemidbar, 19 (p. 23)
We hear from this that the wife is to be put to death only when there are witnesses who establish the fact of adultery, who have given prior warning (to the wife, [as to the ban and the punishment]). But if there are witnesses who did not warn her, she is exempt from the death penalty. Since she is exempt from the death penalty, is she permitted to resume sexual relations with her husband? You must say, when it is in doubt whether she has had sexual intercourse with another man she is prohibited to her husband, a fortiori is the woman prohibited when it is certain that she had such intercourse.
Rather she is included in the rule that states: ‘When a man taketh a wife, and marrieth her’ [then it commeth to pass, if she find no favour in his eyes because he hath found some unseemly thing in her, that he writeth her a bill of divorcement, and giveth in her hand and sendeth her out of his house].’ (Deut. 24:1)
ספרי במדבר פיסקא ז, עמ' 10
לא שמענו אלא בזמן שיש לו עדים ו>לא< התרו בה שיוצאה ממנו בגט אבל ספק נבעלה ספק לא נבעלה לא שמענו מה יעשה לה ת"ל דבר אל בני ישראל ואמרת אליהם איש איש כי תשטה אשתו המרים לכך נאמרה הפרשה. הרי הכתוב זוקקה שתהא שותה המים
Sifre Bemidbar, 7 (p. 10)
We derive the rule [that divorce is the required recourse for a husband who has found his wife to be adulterous] only in a case in which there are witnesses [who establish the fact of adultery], but they did give prior warning [to the wife, as to the ban and the punishment]. But if there is a matter of doubt whether or not the woman has actually had sexual relations, we do not know the rule of what the man has to do to her. Accordingly, Scripture states: ‘[And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying] Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: If any man’s wife go aside. . . .’ (Num. 5: 11–12)
Here, Scripture obliges her to drink the bitter water. For this purpose was this passage written.
Ancient Near-Eastern Parallels
Hammurabi §129
If a man’s wife is surprised (in flagrante delicto) with another man, both shall be tied and thrown into the water, but the husband may pardon his wife and the king his slaves.
Hammurabi, §132
If the “finger is pointed” at a man’s wife about another man, but she is not caught sleeping with the other man, she shall jump into the river for her husband.
Reasoning Behind the Ritual
"Jacob Milgrom, for example, believes that for this instance biblical law adopted a foreign pagan institution in order to save women from public lynching, which was the probable fate of a woman with a reputation as an adulteress."
-Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Sotah
"That אֶת יְרֵכֵךְ נֹפֶלֶת means abortion admits of little doubt...if [the second clause] really means to swell, as is after all most probable, the idea must be that though the woman grows great with child, the birth will be abortive."
-Julius Brewer, The Ordeal in Numbers Chapter 5
"While these questions go beyond the scope of this study, it should be noted that jealousy appears to be an exclusively male passion in the Hebrew Bible (with the possible exception of Song of Songs 8:6, which has an ambiguous reference), and one that can be associated with the sort of violence that must be controlled."
"The mention of ‘curse and oath’ in the Sotah text, seems designed to deter women from adultery and to coerce a confession from them. Everything about the ritual, from the priestly context to the ritual props of the scroll, dirt, and offering, is designed to intimidate and humiliate the woman. The threat of such a ritual, not to mention undergoing it, could certainly terrify anyone, especially a woman accused of such a serious offense. Because the Sotah works as a form of social control, it is paradoxically the mention of the curse, more than its performance, that accounts for its efficacy."
"The Sotah text offers less access to humour than the Balaam narrative. One can imagine, however, the scenario in which the woman is vindicated and her uterus does not drop. The husband in this case must now face the entire community as one who gave in to the ‘spirit of jealousy’, whose suspicion was groundless. If, on the other hand, the husband’s suspicion is affirmed, his reward is a wife (presuming he wishes to remain married) who cannot bear children. Little hermeneutical imagination is needed, then, to imagine how this ritual could ‘backfire’. The logic of reversal so central to the Balaam story, in which curses become blessings, presents readers of the Sotah text with the possibility that the curse may somehow become a blessing – perhaps by the humiliation of the husband and priest, who may seem ludicrous in their efforts, or by the vindication of the woman. Also, from a retrospective standpoint, when the ritual had been abandoned or at least placed at some historical distance, the high level of detail could presumably look rather silly, especially if the reader were inclined to doubt the efficacious power of such a ritual. The sheer uniqueness of the text itself exposes it to the risk of marginal status, if not outright disregard."
-Brian Britt, Male Jealousy and the Suspected Sotah