How the Sotah Verse Warns Against Loud Speech and Loose Laughter

Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Nasso 4:5

Another interpretation (of Ecclesiastes 7:26): "He who is good before God shall escape from her." This is whoever sees an adulterous woman and flees from her. "And a sinner shall be caught by her." This is whoever is seized by her. Therefore it is said (Numbers 5:12): "Any man whose wife goes astray." Another interpretation (of Ecclesiastes 7:26): "And I find more bitter than death." Not loud of voice, nor haughty of gait, nor unrestrained in laughter: this is the way of the daughters of Israel. And if she was unrestrained in one of these, one warns her by the mouth of two [witnesses, and says to her]: "What have you to laugh with so-and-so? What have you to speak with him?" If she has merely spoken with him until now, she is permitted to her house and to eat of the Terumah. [If she has entered with him into a secret place and remained long enough to be defiled, she is forbidden to her house and to eat of the Terumah.]

Themes

Biblical References