Numbers 5:11-31

Complete Jewish Bible

(A: iv) ¹¹ Adonai said to Moshe, ¹² “Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him; ¹³ that is, if another man goes to bed with her without her husband’s knowledge, so that she becomes impure secretly, and there is no witness against her, and she was not caught in the act; ¹⁴ then, if a spirit of jealousy comes over him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she has become impure — or, for that matter, if the spirit of jealousy comes over him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she has not become impure — ¹⁵ he is to bring his wife to the cohen, along with the offering for her, two quarts of barley flour on which he has not poured olive oil or put frankincense, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a grain offering for remembering, for recalling guilt to mind. ¹⁶ The cohen will bring her forward and place her before Adonai. ¹⁷ The cohen will put holy water in a clay pot, and then the cohen will take some of the dust on the floor of the tabernacle and put it in the water. ¹⁸ The cohen will place the woman before Adonai, unbind the woman’s hair and put the grain offering for remembering in her hands, the grain offering for jealousy; while the cohen has in his hand the water of embitterment and cursing. ¹⁹ The cohen will make her swear by saying to her, “If no man has gone to bed with you, if you have not gone astray to make yourself unclean while under your husband’s authority, then be free from this water of embitterment and cursing. ²⁰ But if you have in fact gone astray while under your husband’s authority and become unclean, because some man other than your husband has gone to bed with you . . .” ²¹ then the cohen is to make the woman swear with an oath that includes a curse; the cohen will say to the woman, “. . .may Adonai make you an object of cursing and condemnation among your people by making your private parts shrivel and your abdomen swell up! ²² May this water that causes the curse go into your inner parts and make your abdomen swell and your private parts shrivel up!” — and the woman is to respond, “Amen! Amen!” ²³ The cohen is to write these curses on a scroll, wash them off into the water of embitterment ²⁴ and make the woman drink the water of embitterment and cursing — the water of cursing will enter her and become bitter. ²⁵ Then the cohen is to remove the grain offering for jealousy from the woman’s hand, wave the grain offering before Adonai and bring it to the altar. ²⁶ The cohen is to take a handful of the grain offering as its reminder portion and make it go up in smoke on the altar; afterwards, he is to make the woman drink the water. ²⁷ When he has made her drink the water, then, if she is unclean and has been unfaithful to her husband, the water that causes the curse will enter her and become bitter, so that her abdomen swells and her private parts shrivel up; and the woman will become an object of cursing among her people. ²⁸ But if the woman is not unclean but clean, then she will be innocent and will have children. ²⁹ This is the law for jealousy: when either a wife under her husband’s authority goes astray and becomes unclean, ³⁰ or the spirit of jealousy comes over a husband and he becomes jealous of his wife, then he is to place the woman before Adonai, and the cohen is to deal with her in accordance with all of this law. ³¹ The husband will be clear of guilt, but the wife will bear the consequences of her guilt.’”