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[270]
But if any one suspect that his wife has been guilty of adultery,
he was to bring a tenth deal of barley flour; they then cast one handful
to God and gave the rest of it to the priests for food. One of the priests
set the woman at the gates that are turned towards the temple, and took
the veil from her head, and wrote the name of God on parchment, and enjoined
her to swear that she had not at all injured her husband; and to wish that,
if she had violated her chastity, her right thigh might be put out of joint;
that her belly might swell; and that she might die thus: but that if her
husband, by the violence of his affection, and of the jealousy which arose
from it, had been rashly moved to this suspicion, that she might bear a
male child in the tenth month. Now when these oaths were over, the priest
wiped the name of God out of the parchment, and wrung the water into a
vial. He also took some dust out of the temple, if any happened to be there,
and put a little of it into the vial, and gave it her to drink; whereupon
the woman, if she were unjustly accused, conceived with child, and brought
it to perfection in her womb: but if she had broken her faith of wedlock
to her husband, and had sworn falsely before God, she died in a reproachful
manner; her thigh fell off from her, and her belly swelled with a dropsy.
And these are the ceremonies about sacrifices, and about the purifications
thereto belonging, which Moses provided for his countrymen. He also prescribed
the following laws to them: -
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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