Indeed.
In Old Testament law,
Numbers 5:11–31 presents a situation in which a husband suspects his wife of adultery, but he can’t prove it. He takes her to a priest who performs a ritual designed to prove her guilt or innocence. The ritual involves a grain offering during which the wife is put under oath.
After swearing her innocence, the wife drinks a cocktail of holy water and tabernacle dust. If she is innocent, nothing will happen. But should she be guilty (the priest tells her), then “may the Lord cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries” (
Num. 5:21–22 NIV). In the Revised English Bible (the updated version of the New English Bible), the phrasing is “may the Lord make an example of you among your people . . . by bringing upon you miscarriage and untimely birth.”