Does Numbers 5.11-31 contain an ancient abortion ritual? Many scholars argue yes! But it's heavily debated. The ordeal, referred to as "The Sotah" describes a woman accused of adultery drinking a potion made from dirty water. If she is guilty then something awful happens to her uterus, if she is innocent she will bear children.

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Thanks to JoAnn Scurlock for her correspondence to help me understand Akkadian medical texts.

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0:00 - Introduction
1:00 - How did the ritual work?
2:14 - Was pregnancy involved?
5:10 - What was the curse?
11:42 - What was the purpose?
15:28 - Summary

SOURCES:
Miscarriage + sterility view:
- Nissim Amzallag and Shamir Yona - The Kenite Origin of the Sotah Prescription (Numbers 5.11–31) (2017)
- John Barton and John Muddiman, Oxford Bible Commentary, 2010, p.160
- Calum Carmichael, The Book of Numbers (2012)
- G.-R. Driver, Two problems in the Old Testament examined in the light of Assyriology (1956)
- Jaeyoung Jeon, “Two Laws in the Sotah Passage (Num. v 11-31),” Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007)
- W. McKane, “Poison, Trial by Ordeal and the Cup of Wrath,” Vetus Testamentum 30 (1980): 474;
- Levine, Numbers Anchor Yale Bible Commentary (1993)
- Lloyd Bailey, Leviticus-Numbers: Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary (2005, Note: Doesn't argue one way or the other, but is open to miscarriage as a possibility)
- Judith R. Wegner, Chattel or Person? The Status of Women in the Mishnah (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 52

Sterility only view:
- Jacob Milgrom, JPS Commentary on Numbers (1989)
- Tikva Frymer-Kensky, The Strange Case of the Suspected Sotah (Numbers V 11-31) (1984)
- Elisha Kwabena Marfo, marital suspicion: a comparative study of Numbers 5:11-31 and the ancient Near East Mari and Hammurabi codes (2017)
- R Briggs, Reading the Sotah Text (Numbers 5:11-31): Holiness and a Hermeneutic Fit for Suspicion (2009)
- Pekka Pitkänen, Commentary on numbers (2018)
- Roy Gane Innovation in the Suspected Adulteress Ritual (Num 5:11–31) (2016)
- Sterility + a hysterical/false pregnancy: Herbert Chanan Brichto, The Case of the Śōṭā and a Reconsideration of Biblical "Law" (1975)
- Eve Levavi Feinstein, The “Bitter Waters” of Numbers 5:11-31 (2012) - This article is primarily about the term “bitter waters” and the argument that this trial was a punishment

No specific position:
- G. Wenham, Numbers TOTC (1997) (Lists both possibilities)
- Timothy R. Ashley, The Book of Numbers (1993) (he argues it is impossible to say, seems to lean towards sterility only)
- Lisa Grushcow, Writing the Wayward Wife: Rabbinic Interpretations of Sotah (2019)
- Gray, International Critical Commentary on Numbers (1903)

Other commentaries on the Sotah:
- Idan Dershowitz, The Guilt of the Slanderer and the Sotah: From Certainty to Uncertainty [ Ссылка ]
- Michael Fishbane, Accusations of Adultery: A Study of Law and Scribal Practice in Numbers 5:11—31 (1974)
- Adriana Destro, The Bitter Waters in The Law of Jealousy Book Subtitle: Anthropology of Sotah

On Isaiah 26 and npl being a term for birth
- The Little Isaiah Apocalypse Book Title: First Isaiah Book Author(s): J. J. M. Roberts
- G. Smith, Isaiah 1-39: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture (2007)

On Trial by Ordeal in England
Robert Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin Kings: 1075-1225.

Blessing as a future conception:
- J. Milgrom (see above)
- R. Gane (see above)

Blessing as maintaining conception:
- Johanna Stiebert, Divinely Sanctioned Violence Against Women: Biblical Marriage and the Example of the Sotah of Numbers 5 (2019)
- Ellen Van Wolde, The Niphal as middle voice and its consequence for meaning (2019)
- Hilary B. Lipka, Transgression against Religious Boundaries, Part I in Sexual Transgression in the Hebrew Bible (2006)
- Amzallag Yoni (see above)
- Calum Carmichael (see above)
- W. McKane (see above)
- Richard Elliott Friedman, ‎Shawna Dolansky (see above)

Miqit Libbi
- Uterine prolapse: JoAnn Scurlock, diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian medicine (2005)
- Diarrhea: Gioele Zisa, Going, returning, Rising: The movement of the organs in the Mesopotamian anatomy (2019)
If you have read this far into the description, let me know in a comment

Tom Fox - Waiting For A While (JHTNR2262)

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