What is…
jealousy

also known as: envy and emulations

Human jealousy

In regard to human sin, jealousy refers to an emotion of intense envy of another’s honors or prosperity. It is opposite to contentment.

Q & A

Jealousy involving adultery

The word jealousy in the Bible sometimes refers to a husband’s suspicion about his wife’s purity, one of the strongest emotions of man (Proverbs 6:34; Song of Songs 8:6).

In the Old Testament God recognized this serious sin would sometimes take place (or be suspected) among His chosen people who were supposed to be holy and righteous. So God provided a way to deal with it lawfully, in which God would supernaturally reveal the guilty adulterous wife and divine punishment, and if the wife was pure God would reveal it to the husband, and she would receive Divine blessing.

Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him, and a man lies sexually with her, and it is HIDDEN from the eyes of her husband, and she is UNDETECTED; but she has defiled herself, and there is NO witness against her, and she has NOT been caught in the act, if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife and she HAS defiled herself,

OR if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife but SHE HAS NOT defiled herself,

the man shall then bring his wife to the priest and shall bring as an offering for her one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall not pour oil on it nor put frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, a reminder of iniquity.

‘Then the priest shall bring her near and have her stand before Yahweh, and the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel; and the priest shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. The priest shall then have the woman stand before Yahweh and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose, and he shall place the grain offering of remembrance in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy; and in the hand of the priest is to be the water of bitterness that brings curses.

Then the priest shall have her swear an oath and shall say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray into defilement, being under the authority of your husband, be free from this water of bitterness that brings curses;

if you, however, have gone astray, being under the authority of your husband, and if you have defiled yourself, and a man other than your husband has lain with you”

(then the priest shall have the woman swear with the oath of the curse, and the priest shall say to the woman),

“Yahweh make you a curse and an oath among your people by Yahweh making your thigh fall away and your abdomen swell; and this water that brings curses shall go into your stomach and make your abdomen swell and your thigh fall away.” And the woman shall say, “Amen. Amen.”

‘The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall wash them off into the water of bitterness. Then he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings curses, so that the water which brings a curse will go into her to cause bitterness.

And the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, and he shall wave the grain offering before Yahweh and bring it near to the altar; and the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial offering and offer it up in smoke on the altar, and afterward he shall make the woman drink the water.

So he will have her drink the water, and it will be that, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, that the water which brings curses will go into her to cause bitterness, and her abdomen will swell and her thigh will fall away, and the woman will become a curse among her people.

But if the woman has NOT defiled herself and is clean, she will then be free and conceive a seed.

‘This is the law of jealousy: when a wife, being under the authority of her husband, goes astray and defiles herself, or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife, he shall then make the woman stand before Yahweh, and the priest shall apply all this law to her. Moreover, the man [husband] will be free from guilt, but that woman shall bear her guilt.’” —Numbers 5:14-31 LSB

It is not clear what was meant by “thigh fall away.” The word “thigh” here is likely a euphemism for her genital parts and/or uterus. Whatever punishment is delicately referred to by these words is definitely something serious, and is something Sovereign God chose as an appropriate penalty for the wife’s serious sin against her God, her husband, and her people.

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God’s jealousy

God is sometimes jealous, but not in a sinful way (1 Corinthians 10:22; Psalm 79:5).

Moses reported to the Israelites the seriousness of the sin of idolatry.

Yahweh shall not be willing to pardon him [the Israelite idolater], but rather the anger of Yahweh and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under heaven. —Deuteronomy 29:20 LSB

God’s prophet Zechariah reports that,

So the angel who was speaking with me said to me, “Call out, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. But I am very wrathful with the nations who are at ease; for I was only a little wrathful, but they helped increase the calamity.” Therefore thus says Yahweh, “I will return to Jerusalem with compassion; My house will be built in it,” declares Yahweh of hosts, “and a measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem.”’

Again, call out, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “My cities will again overflow with good, and Yahweh will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.”’” —Zechariah 1:14-17 LSB

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Article Version: April 14, 2025