This excerpt from the New King James version of the Christian Bible would be illegal for you to download and read on the Internet, according to the now-defunct Communications Decency Act, and would be illegal for me to provide on my Web server. (A translation in more modern English is available.) It describes the punishment meted out to a woman who has been unfaithful to her husband: an abortion is forced upon her:
20 "But if you have gone astray while under your husband's authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has lain with you" --
21 'Then the priest shall put the woman under the oath of the curse, and he shall say to the woman -- "the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the LORD makes your thigh rot and your belly swell;
22 "And may this water that causes the curse go into your stomach, and make your belly swell and your thigh rot." Then the woman shall say, "Amen, so be it."
23 'The the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall scrape them off into the bitter water.
24 'And he shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter her to become bitter.
25 'Then the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman's hand, shall wave the offering before the LORD, and bring it to the altar;
26 'And the priest shall take a handful of the offering, as its memorial portion, burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water.
27 '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.
28 'But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she shall be free and may conceive children.
Modern Biblical scholarship supports the King James text that the "bitter water" which the unfaithful wife must drink is actually an abortifacient. By describing this process and alluding to abortion, the Bible and this Web page violate the new Telecommunications legislation.
The text is quoted from The New King James Version of the Old and New Testaments -- a Gideon Bible.
Want a version in clearer, more modern English? Try the Oxford New English Bible!
Special thanks to Paul Lord, who posted an article about this section of the Old Testament to the Usenet newsgroup talk.bizarre. He suggests you see his own page, where you can find that post and links to Shava Nerad's page, the CDT, the EFF, and other materials.
This page is Copyright (C) 1996 by M. L. Grant. Redistribution and use prohibited without express written permission!