ועבר עליו רוח קנאה. רוח טהרה להתרות בה מאחר שידע ששטתה מדרכי צניעות: ועבר עליו רוח קנאה, a pure spirit, his wanting to reprimand her after he was aware that she had behaved unchastely.
וקנא את אשתו. התרה בה ואמר אל תסתרי עם איש פלוני: וקנא את אשתו, he warned her and told her not to seclude herself with the man who was suspected as her lover. Or,
או עבר עליו רוח קנאה. רוח שטות בלתי סבה ראויה שיקנא: עבר עליו רוח קנאה, a foolish fit of jealousy, not based on any cause for suspecting her,
והיא לא נטמאה. אבל אם עברה על התראתו ונסתרה אף על פי כן: והיא לא נטמאה, and she had not become defiled at all; nonetheless she disregarded her husband’s warning and secluded herself with another man. In spite of this, והביא האיש את אשתו, we do not say that seeing that her husband had sat by silently while his wife had behaved unchastely, accusing her in his heart without saying a word, that this is proof of the husband’s bad attitude and we should therefore ignore his jealousy seeing he had allowed matters to get to the point where she had slept with another man; neither do we ignore his jealousy if she had not given him cause as something not worth paying attention to. We still subject her to the destruction (erasing) of the name of G’d (in the procedure the Torah will presently describe) in order to reveal the truth.