Translations:What was the purpose of the Numbers 5 dusty(or "bitter") water test?/3/en

This test, often called the "bitter water" test, has been compared to a trial by ordeal. It is the opposite of an ordeal, though, in the sense that the water mixed with dust was harmless in and of itself (and probably more healthy than the distilled, demineralized water which people drink on a regular basis nowadays), and required divine intervention to cause harm. Ordeals as used in man's law were typically actions that were harmful by nature (eg. drowning, fighting, touching boiling water), requiring divine intervention to guide the outcome or prevent the harm. Ordeals attempted to force God's hand in revealing a judicial outcome. In this sense, they are more akin to Gideon's use of the fleece (which is certainly not a pattern that we find encouraged in scripture).