Numbers 5:11-22

English Standard Version

A Test for Adultery

¹¹ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹² “Speak to the people of Israel, If any man's wife goes astray and breaks faith with him, ¹³ if a man ^(A)lies with her sexually, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, ^(B)since she was not taken in the act, ¹⁴ and if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself, ¹⁵ then the man shall bring his wife to the priest and bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephah^[a] of barley flour. ^(C)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, ^(D)bringing iniquity to remembrance.

¹⁶ “And the priest shall bring her near and set her before the Lord. ¹⁷ And the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. ¹⁸ And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and ^(E)unbind the hair of the woman's head and place in her hands the grain offering of remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And in his hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse. ¹⁹ Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, ‘If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanness while you were under your husband's authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse. ²⁰ But if you have gone astray, though you are under your husband's authority, and if you have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband has lain with you, ²¹ then’ (let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse, and say to the woman) ^(F)‘the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh fall away and your body swell. ²² May this water that brings the curse ^(G)pass into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away.’ And the woman shall say, ^(H)‘Amen, Amen.’