Numbers 5
5
Isolation of the Unclean
1The Lord instructed Moses, 2“Command the Israelites to send away anyone from the camp who is afflicted with a skin disease, # 5:2 Ex 4:6; Lv 13:42–44; Nm 12:10 anyone who has a discharge, # 5:2 Lv 15:2–33; 22:4; 2Sm 3:29 or anyone who is defiled because of a corpse. # 5:2 Lv 14:2–3; 15:2; 22:4; Nm 9:6–7 3Send away both male or female; send them outside the camp, so that they will not defile their camps where I dwell among them.” 4The Israelites did this, sending them outside the camp. The Israelites did as the Lord instructed Moses.
Compensation for Wrongdoing
5The Lord spoke to Moses: 6“Tell the Israelites: When a man or woman commits any sin against another, that person acts unfaithfully toward the Lord # 5:6 Lv 6:2; Nm 31:16; Jos 22:22; 2Ch 28:19 and is guilty. # 5:6 Lv 4:13,22,27; 5:2–5,17–19; 6:4; Ezk 22:4; 25:12 7The person is to confess # 5:7 Lv 5:5; 26:40; Neh 1:6 the sin he has committed. He is to pay full compensation, add a fifth of its value to it, and give it to the individual he has wronged. # 5:7 Lv 5:16; 6:1–5; 22:14; 27:13,15,19,27,31 8But if that individual has no relative # 5:8 Lv 25:25,48–49; Jr 32:7 to receive compensation, the compensation goes to the Lord for the priest, along with the atonement ram by which the priest will make atonement for the guilty person. # 5:8 Lv 6:6–7 9Every holy contribution the Israelites present to the priest will be his. # 5:9 Ex 25:2–3; 29:27–28; Lv 7:14,32,34 10Each one’s holy contribution is his to give; what each one gives to the priest will be his.”
The Jealousy Ritual
11The Lord spoke to Moses: 12“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: If any man’s wife goes astray, is unfaithful to him, 13and sleeps with another, # 5:13 Lit and man lies with her and has an emission of semen but it is concealed from her husband, and she is undetected, even though she has defiled herself, since there is no witness against her, and she wasn’t caught in the act; 14and if a feeling of jealousy # 5:14 Jb 5:2; Pr 6:34; 14:30; 27:4; 2Co 12:20; Gl 5:20 comes over the husband and he becomes jealous because of his wife who has defiled herself — or if a feeling of jealousy comes over him and he becomes jealous of her though she has not defiled herself — 15then the man is to bring his wife to the priest. He is also to bring an offering for her of two quarts # 5:15 Lit a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He is not to pour oil over it or put frankincense on it because it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering for remembrance to draw attention to guilt.
16“The priest is to bring her forward and have her stand before the Lord. 17Then the priest is to take holy water in a clay bowl, take some of the dust from the tabernacle floor, and put it in the water. 18After the priest has the woman stand before the Lord, he is to let down her hair # 5:18 Or to uncover her head and place in her hands the grain offering for remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy. The priest is to hold the bitter water that brings a curse. 19The priest will require the woman to take an oath and will say to her, ‘If no man has slept with you, if you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband’s authority, be unaffected by this bitter water that brings a curse. 20But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority, if you have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband has slept with you’ — 21at this point the priest will make the woman take the oath with the sworn curse, and he is to say to her — ‘May the Lord make you into an object of your people’s cursing and swearing when he makes your womb # 5:21 Lit thigh, also in vv. 22,27 shrivel and your belly swell. 22May this water that brings a curse enter your stomach, causing your belly to swell and your womb to shrivel.’
“And the woman will reply, ‘Amen, Amen.’
23“Then the priest is to write these curses on a scroll and wash them off into the bitter water. 24He will require the woman to drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and it will enter her to cause bitter suffering. 25The priest is to take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman, present the offering before the Lord, and bring it to the altar. 26The priest is to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial portion # 5:26 Lv 2:2,9,16; 5:12; 6:15; 24:7 and burn it on the altar. Afterward, he will require the woman to drink the water.
27“When he makes her drink the water, if she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings a curse will enter her to cause bitter suffering; her belly will swell, and her womb will shrivel. She will become a curse among her people. 28But if the woman has not defiled herself and is pure, she will be unaffected and will be able to conceive children.
29“This is the law regarding jealousy when a wife goes astray and defiles herself while under her husband’s authority, 30or when a feeling of jealousy comes over a husband and he becomes jealous of his wife. He is to have the woman stand before the Lord, and the priest will carry out all these instructions for her. 31The husband will be free of guilt, but that woman will bear her iniquity.”
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Numbers 5
5
Various laws and the dedication of the Levites
People are sent outside the camp
1The LORD told Moses 2-3to say to the people of Israel, “Put out of the camp everyone who has leprosy#5.2,3 leprosy: The word translated “leprosy” was used for many different kinds of skin diseases. or a bodily discharge or who has touched a dead body. Now that I live among my people, their camp must be kept clean.”
4The Israelites obeyed the LORD's instructions.
The penalty for committing a crime
(Leviticus 6.1-7)
5The LORD told Moses#Lv 6.1-7. 6to say to the community of Israel:
If any of you commit a crime against someone, you have sinned against me. 7You must confess your guilt and pay the victim in full for whatever damage has been done, plus a fine of twenty per cent. 8If the victim has no relative who can accept this money, it belongs to me and will be paid to the priest. In addition to that payment, you must take a ram for the priest to sacrifice so your sin will be forgiven.
9-10When you make a donation to the sacred tent, that money belongs only to the priest, and each priest will keep what is given to him.
A suspicious husband
11The LORD told Moses 12-14to say to the people of Israel:
Suppose a man becomes jealous and suspects that his wife has been unfaithful, but he has no proof. 15He must take his wife to the priest, together with one kilogramme of ground barley as an offering to find out if she is guilty. No olive oil or incense is to be put on that offering.
16The priest is to make the woman stand at my altar, 17where he will pour sacred water into a clay jar and stir in some dust from the floor of the sacred tent. 18-22Next, he will remove her veil, then hand her the barley offering, and say, “If you have been faithful to your husband, this water won't harm you. But if you have been unfaithful, it will bring down the LORD's curse—you will never be able to give birth to a child, and everyone will curse your name.”
Then the woman will answer, “If I am guilty, let it happen just as you say.”
23The priest will write these curses on special paper and wash them off into the bitter water, 24so that when the woman drinks this water, the curses will enter her body. 25He will take the barley offering from her and lift it up#5.25 lift it up: Or “wave it”. in dedication to me, the LORD. Then he will place it on my altar 26and burn part of it as a sacrifice. After that, the woman must drink the bitter water.
27If the woman has been unfaithful, the water will immediately make her unable to have children, and she will be a curse among her people. 28But if she is innocent, her body will not be harmed, and she will still be able to have children.
29-30This is the ceremony that must take place at my altar when a husband suspects that his wife has been unfaithful. The priest must make the woman stand in my presence and carefully follow these instructions. 31If the husband is wrong, he will not be punished; but if his wife is guilty, she will be punished.
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012