Comentario sobre Números 5:21

בשבעת האלה [AND THE PRIEST SHALL ADJURE THE WOMAN] WITH AN ADJURATION OF CURSING — i.e., an oath which contains the curse.

לאלה ולשבועה, as a curse and as an oath. When a person demands that someone confirms a statement he had made to him by an oath, he tells that person “swear to me that if what you have told me is false that you will become an accursed person.” The swelling of the Sotah’s belly and the collapse of her hips are signs of such a curse.

The way. Meaning “if what I said is not true may [disaster] happen to me…” For if this was not so, the Torah should have said “Hashem shall place אלה (a curse) in you”. Thus the lamed of the word לאלה is in place of the word “for” (the verse reading “Hashem shall make you for a curse), meaning that she shall be a tool for everyone who curses or makes an oath.

והשביע הכהן את האשה, “then the priest shall cause the woman to accept a curse as a form of an oath;” this took the form of the woman confirming the curses uttered by the priest with answering: “Amen.”

יתן ה’ אותך לאלה THE LORD MAKE THEE AN EXECRATION — i.e. that everybody will curse through thee (i.e., by mention of thy name), saying, “May misfortune come upon you just as it came upon Mrs. so-and-so!”

ירכך, “your thigh;” this is a synonym for “your womb.” Compare Genesis 24,2 where Avraham asks his servant to select a suitable wife for his son Yitzchok, by placing his hand under his thigh, i.e. תחת ירכי; then we have the expression: יוצאי ירך יעקב, “the descendants of Yaakov stemming from his thigh,” in Exodus 1,5. In the Talmud Megillah, folio 13, we hear that a woman’s jealousy is usually concerned with the offspring of other women, where the word for “offspring” used is the word .ירך

ולשבעה [THE LORD MAKE THEE AN EXECRATION] AND AN OATH — This means, that everybody will swear through thee (i.e., by mention of thy name) — “If not (i.e., if I am not speaking the truth) may misfortune happen to me just as it happened to Mrs. So-and-so!” In a similar sense it states, (Isaiah 65:15) “and ye shall leave your name as an oath unto my chosen” which means that the righteous take an oath by mention of the punishment that came upon evil-doers. So, too, in reference to the blessing, does it state, (Genesis 12:3) “and through thee (i.e., by mention of thy name) shall bless themselves [all the families of the earth]”; (Genesis 48:20) “By thee shall Israel bless, saying, [God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh]” (Sifrei Bamidbar 14).

נופלת, “falling,” an expression describing the loss of something. Compare Job 12,3: לא נופל אנכי מכם, “I am no less than you.” Applied to our situation this means: “you are no longer capable of engaging in carnal relations as the waters will damage the organs designed for this. Your womb will be ruined.”

את ירכך [WHEN THE LORD DOTH MAKE] THY THIGH [TO FALL, AND THY BELLY TO SWELL] — In uttering the curse that will befall her because of her sin he mentions the thigh before the belly (whilst in v. 22 the belly is stated to be affected first), because with it (the thigh) she began to sin (cf. Sotah 8b, 9b).

צבה — Understand this as the Targum does: SWOLLEN.