The Bible

Numbers Chapter 5

¹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²"Command the children of Israel that they [send] every leper, everyone who has a discharge, and whoever is unclean [by touching a] corpse out of the camp. ³Put both male and female outside of the camp so that they don't defile their camp, where I live among [you]."

⁴The children of Israel did so, and put them outside of the camp. The children of Israel did as Yahweh told Moses.

⁵Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ⁶"Tell the children of Israel: 'When a man or woman commits any sin that people commit, so as to trespass against Yahweh, and that soul [knows they are] guilty, ⁷they are to confess the sin they've done and make restitution for their guilt in full, adding to it a fifth [more], and give it to the one wronged. ⁸But if the man has no kinsman to whom restitution may be made for the guilt, the restitution for guilt is to be made to Yahweh. [Give it to the] priest. [This is in] addition to the ram of atonement, by which atonement is be made for him. ⁹Every heave offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they present to the priest, will be his. ¹⁰Every man [is to keep his] holy [things] will be his; whatever any man gives the priest will be his.'"

¹¹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹²"Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them: 'If any man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him, ¹³and a man lies with her sexually, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband and this is kept concealed, and she is defiled, there is no witness against her, and she isn't taken in the act; ¹⁴and the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife and she is defiled; or [even] if the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife and she isn't defiled; ¹⁵then the man is to bring his wife to the priest, and bring the required offering: one tenth of an ephah of barley meal. He shouldn't pour oil on it, or put frankincense on it, for it is a meal offering of jealousy, a meal offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to memory. ¹⁶The priest is to bring her near, [and have] her stand in Yahweh's presence. ¹⁷The priest is to take holy water in an earthen vessel; and the priest is to take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. ¹⁸The priest is to set the woman before Yahweh, and let the hair of the woman's head go loose, and put the meal offering of memorial in her hands, which is the meal offering of jealousy. The priest is to have in his hand the water of bitterness that brings a curse. ¹⁹The priest is to cause her to take an oath and tell the woman, "If no man has lain with you, and if you haven't gone aside to uncleanness, being under your husband's authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings a curse. ²⁰But if you have gone astray, being under your husband's authority, and if you are defiled, and some man has lain with you besides your husband-" ²¹then the priest is to cause the woman to swear with the oath of cursing, and the priest is to tell the woman, "[May] Yahweh make you a curse and an oath among your people, when Yahweh allows your thigh to fall away, and your body to swell; ²²and this water that brings a curse will go into your bowels, and make your body swell, and your thigh fall away." The woman shall say, "Absolutely, Absolutely."

²³"'The priest is to write these curses in a book, and wipe them into the water of bitterness. ²⁴He is to make the woman drink the water of bitterness that causes the curse; and the water that causes the curse will enter her and become bitter. ²⁵The priest is to take the meal offering of jealousy from the woman's hand, and wave the meal offering in Yahweh's presence, and bring it to the altar. ²⁶The priest is to take a handful of the meal offering, as its memorial-portion, and burn it on the altar, and after [that make the] woman drink the water. ²⁷When he has made her drink the water then, if she is defiled and has committed a trespass against her husband, the water that causes the curse will enter her and become bitter. Her body will swell and her thigh will fall away. The woman will be a curse among her people. ²⁸If the woman isn't defiled, but is clean; then she'll be free, and will conceive offspring.

²⁹"'This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, being under her husband, goes astray, and is defiled, ³⁰or when the spirit of jealousy comes on a man, and he is jealous of his wife. The woman must stand in Yahweh's presence, and the priest is to enact with her all of this law. ³¹The man will be free from iniquity, and the woman will bear her [own] iniquity.'"