Numbers 5

The LORD spoke to Moses. He said:

1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2"Tell the people of Israel to send out of the camp anyone with a serious skin disease, anyone who has a discharge from the body, and anyone who has become unclean by touching a dead body.

2Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead:

Note"Unclean" here is a ritual status, not dirtiness and not sin. Certain conditions (skin disease, bodily discharges, contact with a corpse) put a person temporarily outside the sphere of the sanctuary until the condition passed and the prescribed washings were done. The King James "leper" translates a Hebrew word covering a range of scaly skin conditions, not the disease now called leprosy (Hansen's disease).

3Send out both men and women. Send them outside the camp, so that they do not make unclean the camp where I live among them."

3Both male and female shall ye put out, without the camp shall ye put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell.

NoteThe camp was laid out with the tent of worship at the center and the tribes arranged around it. "Outside the camp" therefore means away from the sanctuary at the middle, not exile from the nation; people returned once they were clean again.

4The people of Israel did this. They sent those people outside the camp. They did exactly what the LORD told Moses.

4And the children of Israel did so, and put them out without the camp: as the LORD spake unto Moses, so did the children of Israel.

5The LORD spoke to Moses. He said:

5And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

6"Tell the people of Israel this. When a man or a woman does any wrong that people do to one another, that person has been unfaithful to the LORD and is guilty.

6Speak unto the children of Israel, When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass against the LORD, and that person be guilty;

NoteThe King James "trespass against the LORD" translates a Hebrew word for a breach of trust, the kind of act that violates something sacred. The point of the verse is that cheating another person was treated as an offense against God as well, not only a private wrong.

7That person must confess the sin he has done. He must pay back the full value of what he took, add a fifth more to it, and give it all to the person he wronged.

7Then they shall confess their sin which they have done: and he shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof, and add unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed.

NoteAdding a fifth means paying back the value of what was taken plus a twenty per cent penalty on top of it. The same rule appears in Leviticus 6:1-5.

8But if the wronged person has no relative left to receive the payment, then it belongs to the LORD and must be given to the priest. This is in addition to the ram used to make things right for the guilty person.

8But if the man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompensed unto the LORD, even to the priest; beside the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him.

NoteIn Israelite law the wronged party's nearest relative, the King James "kinsman", had the standing to receive what was owed, take up his lawsuits, and act on his behalf. This verse covers the case where the victim has died and no such relative survives. The "ram of atonement" is a sacrifice separate from the repayment: money settled the debt to the person, the ram settled the offense against God.

9Every holy gift that the people of Israel bring to the priest belongs to the priest.

9And every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his.

NotePriests received no farmland of their own. Portions of what worshipers brought to the sanctuary were their livelihood, which is what this verse is establishing.

10Whatever a man sets apart as holy is his own to give. But once he gives it to the priest, it belongs to the priest."

10And every man’s hallowed things shall be his: whatsoever any man giveth the priest, it shall be his.

11The LORD spoke to Moses. He said:

11And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

12"Speak to the people of Israel and tell them this. Suppose a man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him,

12Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man’s wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him,

13by sleeping with another man, and her husband does not know about it. The act is hidden, she has made herself unclean, no one can testify against her, and she was not caught in the act.

13And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner;

14Suppose a feeling of jealousy comes over her husband and he suspects his wife, and she really has made herself unclean. Or a feeling of jealousy comes over him and he suspects her, but she has not.

14And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled:

15Then the man must bring his wife to the priest. He must also bring an offering for her: about two quarts of barley flour. He must not pour oil on it or put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, an offering that calls a wrong to mind.

15Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance.

NoteA tenth of an ephah is roughly two quarts, about a day's grain ration for one person. Barley was the cheaper grain; ordinary grain offerings used wheat flour with olive oil and frankincense added (Leviticus 2). Leaving out the oil and incense marked this offering as one brought under suspicion rather than in celebration.

16The priest is to bring the woman forward and have her stand in front of the LORD.

16And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD:

Note"Before the LORD" means at the entrance of the tent of worship, the place where legal matters were settled in God's presence.

17The priest is to take holy water in a clay jar. He is to take some of the dust from the floor of the tent of worship and put it into the water.

17And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water:

Note"Holy water" appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible; it most likely means water from the basin used by the priests at the sanctuary. Adding dust from the sanctuary floor put something of the holy place itself into what the woman would drink.

18The priest is to stand the woman in front of the LORD, let her hair down, and place in her hands the offering that calls a wrong to mind, which is the jealousy offering. The priest is to hold the bitter water that brings a curse.

18And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse:

NoteLoosening or uncovering a woman's bound hair in public was a mark of shame and disorder, the same gesture used in mourning. It signaled that her ordinary standing was suspended while the case was decided.

19The priest is to put the woman under oath. He is to say to her, 'If no other man has slept with you, and you have not gone astray and made yourself unclean while married to your husband, then may this bitter water that brings a curse do you no harm.

19And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse:

NoteThe oath is worded so that the woman calls the outcome down on herself. Ancient Near Eastern law used ordeals like this where evidence was impossible to obtain; here the verdict is left to God rather than to a court, and unusually, an innocent woman is publicly cleared by it.

20But suppose you have gone astray while married to your husband. Suppose you have made yourself unclean, and some man other than your husband has slept with you.'

20But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband:

21Then the priest is to make the woman swear this oath of cursing. He is to say to her, 'May the LORD make you a curse and a warning among your people, when he makes your thigh waste away and your belly swell.

21Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell;

NoteTo "become a curse" among your people means your name gets used in the wording of curses, "may God do to you what he did to her." "Thigh" is a standard Hebrew euphemism for the sexual and reproductive organs. What exactly the swelling and wasting describe is not stated: readers have understood it as miscarriage, as permanent infertility, or as a wasting illness, and the Hebrew does not settle it.

22May this water that brings a curse go into your body, make your belly swell, and make your thigh waste away.' And the woman is to say, 'Amen, amen.'

22And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.

Note"Amen" means "it is firm" or "let it be so." Saying it twice is the formal way of accepting an oath and its consequences as binding on yourself.

23The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash the writing off into the bitter water.

23And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water:

NoteInk in the ancient world was carbon-based and water-soluble. Washing the written curses into the water was a way of putting the words themselves into what she drank, so that she swallowed the oath she had just agreed to.

24He is to have the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse. The water that brings a curse will go into her and cause bitter pain.

24And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter.

25Then the priest is to take the jealousy offering from the woman's hand, lift it up and wave it before the LORD, and bring it to the altar.

25Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering before the LORD, and offer it upon the altar:

NoteWaving an offering was a formal gesture of presenting it to God, lifting and moving it toward the altar and back, before any of it was burned or given to the priest.

26The priest is to take a handful of the offering as the part that calls the matter to mind, and burn it on the altar. After that he is to have the woman drink the water.

26And the priest shall take an handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water.

NoteOnly a token handful of a grain offering was burned; that portion, called the memorial, stood for the whole, and the rest went to the priests as food.

27When he has made her drink the water, this is what will happen. If she has made herself unclean and been unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings a curse will go into her and cause bitter pain. Her belly will swell, her thigh will waste away, and she will become a curse among her people.

27And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people.

28But if the woman has not made herself unclean and is clean, then she will not be harmed, and she will conceive and bear children.

28And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed.

NoteThe Hebrew reads literally "she shall be sown with seed." It may mean she is cleared and free to resume normal married life, or that she will bear children; both senses are present in the phrase.

29This is the law about jealousy. It applies when a wife goes astray with another man while married to her husband and makes herself unclean.

29This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled;

30It also applies when a feeling of jealousy comes over a man and he suspects his wife. He is to stand the woman in front of the LORD, and the priest is to carry out this whole law on her.

30Or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law.

31Then the man will be free of guilt, but the woman will carry the guilt of her own wrong."

31Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.

Note"Bear her iniquity" is a legal phrase meaning to carry the consequences of one's own guilt rather than having someone else answer for it. The first half of the verse settles the husband's position: a man who brought his wife through this procedure incurred no penalty for a false accusation, even if she was cleared.