וְהִשְׁבִּ֨יעַ אֹתָ֜הּ הַכֹּהֵ֗ן וְאָמַ֤ר אֶל־הָֽאִשָּׁה֙ אִם־לֹ֨א שָׁכַ֥ב אִישׁ֙ אֹתָ֔ךְ וְאִם־לֹ֥א שָׂטִ֛ית טֻמְאָ֖ה תַּ֣חַת אִישֵׁ֑ךְ הִנָּקִ֕י מִמֵּ֛י הַמָּרִ֥ים הַֽמְאָרְרִ֖ים הָאֵֽלֶּה׃
The priest shall adjure the woman, saying to her, “If no one else has lain with you, if you have not gone astray in defilement while in your husband’s household,* be immune to harm from this water of bitterness that induces the spell.…”
*in your husband’s household Lit. “under your husband.”
(The above rendering comes from the RJPS translation, an adaptation of the NJPS translation.)
The prepositional phrase תַּחַת אִישֵׁךְ is an idiom, meaning something like “under your husband’s jurisdiction.” It appears only here and in the next verse, as well as in the summary statement for this passage (v. 29), as well as in Ezek 16:32.
The expression presupposes a social structure comprised of households that are led mainly by a (male) householder and secondarily by his (primary) wife—an arrangement sometimes called patriarchy, but more accurately a heterarchy. (See Carol L. Meyers, “Contesting the notion of patriarchy: anthropology and the theorizing of gender in ancient Israel,” in A Question of Sex? Gender and Difference in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond, ed. Deborah W. Rooke [Sheffield Phoenix, 2007]: 84–105.)
As for rendering into English, the NJPS “while married to your husband” frames the matter in terms of the marriage relationship only, whereas the ancient audience would have understood that the household frame is also salient here, even though unstated. The revised rendering makes that frame more explicit.