Numbers 5

Purity of the Camp

1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Command the Israelites to send out of the camp everyone with a skin disease, everyone with a bodily discharge, and everyone made unclean by contact with a dead body. 3You shall send out both male and female; send them outside the camp so that they do not defile their camps, in whose midst I dwell.” 4The Israelites did so and sent them outside the camp. As the LORD spoke to Moses, so the Israelites did.

Confession and Restitution

5The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 6“Speak to the Israelites: When a man or woman commits any of the sins by which people act unfaithfully against the LORD, and that person becomes guilty, 7they shall confess the sin they have committed. They shall make full restitution for the wrong, add one-fifth to it, and give it to the one they wronged. 8But if the person has no close redeemer to whom restitution may be made, the restitution belongs to the LORD for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement by which atonement is made for the guilty person. 9Every contribution from all the holy gifts the Israelites bring to the priest shall belong to him. 10Each person’s holy gifts remain that person’s to give; whatever anyone gives to the priest belongs to the priest.”

A Case of Suspected Adultery

11The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 12“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: If a man’s wife goes astray and acts unfaithfully against him, 13and a man lies with her sexually, but it is hidden from her husband and she has kept herself concealed, though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her and she was not caught; 14and if a spirit of jealousy comes over her husband and he becomes jealous of his wife when she has defiled herself, or if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he becomes jealous of his wife though she has not defiled herself, 15then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. He shall bring as her offering one-tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, bringing guilt to remembrance.

16The priest shall bring her near and have her stand before the LORD. 17The priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and the priest shall take some dust from the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. 18The priest shall have the woman stand before the LORD, loosen the woman’s hair, and place in her hands the grain offering of remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy. In the priest’s hand shall be the bitter water that brings a curse. 19Then the priest shall put her under oath and say to the woman, ‘If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to impurity while under your husband, be free from this bitter water that brings a curse. 20But if you have turned aside while under your husband, if you have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband has had sexual relations with you’— 21then the priest shall put the woman under the oath of the curse and say to her—‘may the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people when the LORD causes your thigh to fall and your abdomen to swell. 22May this water that brings a curse enter your body, causing your abdomen to swell and your thigh to fall.’ And the woman shall say, ‘Amen, amen.’

23The priest shall write these curses on a scroll and wash them off into the bitter water. 24Then he shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings a curse shall enter her for bitterness. 25The priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, elevate the grain offering before the LORD, and bring it to the altar. 26The priest shall take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial portion and burn it on the altar; afterward he shall make the woman drink the water.

27When he has made her drink the water, if she has defiled herself and acted unfaithfully against her husband, the water that brings a curse will enter her for bitterness; her abdomen will swell and her thigh will fall, and the woman will become a curse among her people. 28But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she shall be free and shall be able to conceive children. 29This is the instruction concerning jealousy, when a wife under her husband goes astray and defiles herself, 30or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he becomes jealous of his wife. He shall have the woman stand before the LORD, and the priest shall carry out for her all this instruction. 31The man shall be free from guilt, but the woman shall bear her guilt.”