Numbers 5

"if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, who has defiled herself; or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, although she has not defiled herself—...When he has made her drink the water, then it shall be, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, that the water that brings a curse will enter her and become bitter, and her belly will swell, her thigh will rot, and the woman will become a curse among her people.  But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she shall be free and may conceive children." vv.14, 27-28

Read chapter 5
Unfaithful wives.  This chapter mentions the ordinances to reveal the truth if a husband becomes jealous of their wife supposing they have committed adultery.  It seems a strange way to reveal, but as we know it is a hidden sin that is hard to prove yet the Lord knows.  My first thought when reading this was what about the man with whom she committed adultery if she is guilty? Yet first off that's my old feminist side of me jumping to fight but also there were laws for the man who slept with another man's wife that is mentioned in other parts of scripture (ex. Lev.20:10), we can't just say this is the only chapter that talks about punishment for adultery.  Some have said this shows for sanctioned abortion.  It does NOT.  This is about jealousy and making it known as true or untrue.  Only in the NIV is the wording translated to seem like abortion but true to the Hebrew it clearly is "thigh to rot" as in all other translations and other occurrences of this word throughout scripture.  We have to realize the good that this ordinance brought for protection of the woman.  When jealousy and suspicion can't really be proved by man, this would show clear proof of the matter.  For one the husband couldn't unjustly accuse his wife just by his word.  Secondly, if proven guilty by this method there would be no doubt following.  In today's trails about infidelity, if the judge says not guilty it's not so much proven but lack of evidence.  This would in turn still cause strain in the marriage and cause neighbors and friends to continue to wonder, gossip, distrust.  Thus this way would leave no room for doubt in any ones mind and make the marriage and other relationships at peace; a very big deal indeed to live with out that.  "Thus in a world where women's rights were often abused the Lord provided a means for protecting their rights as well as seeing that evil was put away and justice done"(Old Testament Student Manual).  How do you view this passage now for both husbands and wives?