Later text
"How can you say, 'I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals'? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young she-camel galloping here and there,
Intertextuality Pair
Jeremiah 2:23 → Numbers 5:11-31
Allusion
Earlier text
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him by sleeping with another man, and it is concealed from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she was not caught in the act), and if a feeling of jealousy comes over her husband and he suspects his wife who has defiled herself—or if a feeling of jealousy comes over him and he suspects her even though she has not defiled herself— then he is to bring his wife to the priest. He must also bring for her an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He is not to pour oil over it or put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, an offering of memorial as a reminder of iniquity. The priest is to bring the wife forward and have her stand before the LORD. Then he is to take some holy water in a clay jar and put some of the dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. After the priest has the woman stand before the LORD, he is to let down her hair and place in her hands the grain offering of memorial, which is the grain offering for jealousy. The priest is to hold the bitter water that brings a curse. And he is to put the woman under oath and say to her, ‘If no other man has slept with you and you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband’s authority, may you be immune to this bitter water that brings a curse. But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority and have defiled yourself and lain carnally with a man other than your husband’— and the priest shall have the woman swear under the oath of the curse—‘then may the LORD make you an attested curse among your people by making your thigh shrivel and your belly swell. May this water that brings a curse enter your stomach and cause your belly to swell and your thigh to shrivel.’ Then the woman is to say, ‘Amen, Amen.’ And the priest shall write these curses on a scroll and wash them off into the bitter water. He is to have the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and it will enter her and cause her bitter suffering. The priest shall take from her hand the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the LORD, and bring it to the altar. Then the priest is to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial portion and burn it on the altar; after that he is to have the woman drink the water. When he has made her drink the water, if she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, then the water that brings a curse will enter her and cause bitter suffering; her belly will swell, her thigh will shrivel, and she will become accursed among her people. But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will be unaffected and able to conceive children. This is the law of jealousy when a wife goes astray and defiles herself while under her husband’s authority, or when a feeling of jealousy comes over a husband and he suspects his wife. He is to have the woman stand before the LORD, and the priest is to apply to her this entire law. The husband will be free from guilt, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”
Significance
Jeremiah 2:23 addresses Israel's brazen denial of idolatrous defilement — "How can you say, 'I am not defiled (לֹא נִטְמֵאתִי, lo nitmeiti); I have not run after the Baals'?" — which echoes the legal framework of Numbers 5:11-31, the "trial of jealousy" (קִנְאָה, qin'ah) for a wife suspected of unfaithfulness. In Numbers, the suspected wife undergoes a ritual to determine whether she has been "defiled" (נִטְמְאָה, nitme'ah); in Jeremiah, Israel is the unfaithful wife who protests her innocence despite overwhelming evidence. The prophetic use of marital-unfaithfulness language to describe idolatry transforms the Mosaic legal procedure into a theological metaphor: Yahweh as the jealous husband has grounds for the covenant accusation that Israel denies. The evidence is visible — "Look at your behavior in the valley" — rendering the denial absurd.
- Found via
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
- Reference Type
- Allusion
- Connection Method(s)
- Analogy — Jeremiah applies the jealousy-ordeal's legal category analogically: as the suspected wife of Numbers 5 protests that she is not defiled (the root טָמֵא), so Israel protests "I am not defiled" while the evidence of her spiritual adultery stands open in the valley; the Mosaic procedure furnishes the metaphor for Yahweh the jealous husband's case against His covenant wife — an analogical transfer, not a fulfillment or type.