Numbers 5:1-18 ▼

1 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

2 “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp every leper and everyone who has a discharge, and whoever is defiled [that is, ceremonially unclean] by [coming in contact with] the dead.

3 You shall send away both male and female; you shall send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell in their midst.”

4 The Israelites did so, and sent them outside the camp; just as the LORD had said to Moses, so the Israelites did.

5 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

6 “Say to the Israelites, ‘When a man or woman commits any of the sins of mankind [against other people], thus breaking faith with the LORD, and that person is guilty,

7 then he shall confess the sin which he has committed, and he shall make restitution for his wrong in full, and add a fifth to it, and give it to [the person] whom he has wronged.

8 But if the man [who was wronged] has no redeemer (relative) to whom the restitution may be made, it is to be given to the LORD for the priest, besides the ram of atonement with which atonement is made for the offender.

9 Also every contribution pertaining to all the holy gifts of the Israelites which they offer to the priest, shall be his.

10 And every man’s holy gifts shall be the priest’s; whatever any man gives the priest, it becomes his.’”

11 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

12 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘If any man’s wife goes astray (deviates) and is unfaithful to him,

13 and a man is intimate with her, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband and it is kept secret, although she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act,

14 and if a spirit (sense, attitude) of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous and angry at his wife who has defiled herself—or if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife when she has not defiled herself—

15 then the man shall bring his wife to the priest, and he shall bring as an offering for her, a tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall not pour oil on it nor put frankincense on it [the symbols of favor and joy], because it is a grain offering of jealousy, a memorial grain offering, a reminder of [the consequences of] wickedness.

16 ‘Then the priest shall have her approach and have her stand before the LORD,

17 and the priest shall take holy water [from the sacred basin] in an earthenware vessel; and he shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it in the water.

18 The priest shall then have the woman stand before the LORD, and let the hair of the woman’s head hang loose, and put the memorial grain offering in her hands, which is the jealousy offering, and in the hand of the priest is to be the water of bitterness that brings a curse.