וְאַ֗תְּ כִּ֥י שָׂטִ֛ית תַּ֥חַת אִישֵׁ֖ךְ וְכִ֣י נִטְמֵ֑את וַיִּתֵּ֨ן אִ֥ישׁ בָּךְ֙ אֶת־שְׁכָבְתּ֔וֹ מִֽבַּלְעֲדֵ֖י אִישֵֽׁךְ׃
Estas águas amargas que causam maldição entrarão em tuas entranhas para fazer inchar teu ventre e cair tua coxa. E a mulher dirá: Amém, Amém.
Chizkuni
ואמרה האשה: אמן, “the woman will respond by saying: “Amen.” In other words, she will agree that this will happen to her and deservedly, if she lied and was guilty of the accusations. According to the Jerusalem Targum, the word “Amen” here includes the following: “I agree that if I have defiled myself, or even if I will defile myself in the future.”According to our sages in the Sifri, the word: “Amen” here, means that she agrees that if she was guilty of having carnal relations with the particular man under discussion, or even with any other man not under discussion (after her marriage) she agrees that she deserves the penalty announced to her by the priest (the Torah). They explain further that seeing that the oaths are expressed in the plural mode, although only one single example of what they applied to was mentioned, (carnal relations (verse 20) any earlier violations of the laws of chastity in marriage would also now result in her being punished for them. They use logic to derive this: if a woman who had strayed but had never been accused previously is now being punished, any earlier acts of robbery [marital infidelity is an act of robbing one’s husband of his legitimate and exclusive rights, Ed.] in which the accusation could not be made to result in her being penalized, would now also be taken into consideration by G-d and used against her.
Rabbeinu Bahya
There is an allusion to our present exile under the descendants of Edom in the experience of the Jewish people in their first exile under the Egyptians. The Jews in Egypt had to bear up under increasingly difficult conditions only in order to experience a wonderful redemption and in seeing their oppressors being killed after suffering many plagues and then dying a painful death by drowning. Similarly, when the time comes we will experience a wonderful redemption when the Messiah will arrive, a redemption by comparison to which the Exodus of the Jewish people will fade into relative insignificance. David referred to this redemption in Psalm 130,6 where he described the longing of the כנסת ישראלsaying “I am more eager for the Lord than watchmen for the morning.” If in spite of our impatient wait for the redemption it has been delayed then this is only in order to add to the guilt of our oppressors in the interval and in order to punish them more severely for their sins against G’d and against His people. Just as we find that oppression of the Jewish people reached a new intensity after Moses asked that his people be allowed to celebrate a holiday for the Lord in the desert, the redemption in the future will be ushered in after a period of unparalleled suffering by the Jewish people. The initial attempt at bringing about the final redemption will suffer setbacks just as the initial attempt by Moses to secure the release of the Jewish people encountered setbacks.
Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 5,20 comment on verse 20 where Moses and Aaron are being assailed by the overseers of the Jewish laborers for having been instrumental in their situation deteriorating rather than improving, that after 6 months G’d appeared to Moses in Midyan and said to him: “go back to Egypt (4,19) for all the people who wish to kill you have died.” When Moses and Aaron met, the former coming from Midyan and the latter from Egypt, the overseers met them as they emerged from their audience with Pharaoh. We find a similar comment in Midrash Chazita on Song of Songs 2,9: “My beloved is like a gazelle.” Just as a gazelle is visible to the eye one moment, disappears and then reappears, so the first redeemer appeared to the Jewish people, disappeared, and reappeared again in due course. Rabbi Tanchuma said that Moses disappeared for only three months and that this is the meaning of ויפגעו את משה ואת אהרן. [The expression ויפגעו always refers to an unexpected meeting, i.e. since both Moses and Aaron had returned to their previous abodes there was no reason to expect them at the palace gates of Pharaoh at the time (quoted in the name of עץ יוסף)]. When the prophet Micah 7,15 speaks of G’d performing miracles “just as in the days when you came out of Egypt,” he alludes to certain similarities between what preceded the Exodus from Egypt to what will occur when the final redemption will be at hand. We have another Midrash (Sanhedrin 98) according to which the meaning of Isaiah 59,19: “for he will come like a hemmed in stream which the wind of the Lord drives on,” is that if you observe a certain generation being flooded by troubles from all sides like a river, await him (the Messiah), seeing that the prophet Isaiah continued there (verse 20) “for he shall come as a redeemer to Zion and to those who turn back from sin.”
Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 5,20 comment on verse 20 where Moses and Aaron are being assailed by the overseers of the Jewish laborers for having been instrumental in their situation deteriorating rather than improving, that after 6 months G’d appeared to Moses in Midyan and said to him: “go back to Egypt (4,19) for all the people who wish to kill you have died.” When Moses and Aaron met, the former coming from Midyan and the latter from Egypt, the overseers met them as they emerged from their audience with Pharaoh. We find a similar comment in Midrash Chazita on Song of Songs 2,9: “My beloved is like a gazelle.” Just as a gazelle is visible to the eye one moment, disappears and then reappears, so the first redeemer appeared to the Jewish people, disappeared, and reappeared again in due course. Rabbi Tanchuma said that Moses disappeared for only three months and that this is the meaning of ויפגעו את משה ואת אהרן. [The expression ויפגעו always refers to an unexpected meeting, i.e. since both Moses and Aaron had returned to their previous abodes there was no reason to expect them at the palace gates of Pharaoh at the time (quoted in the name of עץ יוסף)]. When the prophet Micah 7,15 speaks of G’d performing miracles “just as in the days when you came out of Egypt,” he alludes to certain similarities between what preceded the Exodus from Egypt to what will occur when the final redemption will be at hand. We have another Midrash (Sanhedrin 98) according to which the meaning of Isaiah 59,19: “for he will come like a hemmed in stream which the wind of the Lord drives on,” is that if you observe a certain generation being flooded by troubles from all sides like a river, await him (the Messiah), seeing that the prophet Isaiah continued there (verse 20) “for he shall come as a redeemer to Zion and to those who turn back from sin.”