The Test for an Unfaithful Wife

¹¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man’s wife goes astray^(A) and is unfaithful to him ¹³ so that another man has sexual relations with her,^(B) and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act), ¹⁴ and if feelings of jealousy^(C) come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure— ¹⁵ then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah^[a](D) of barley flour^(E) on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy,^(F) a reminder-offering^(G) to draw attention to wrongdoing.

¹⁶ “‘The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord. ¹⁷ Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. ¹⁸ After the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair^(H) and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy,^(I) while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse.^{(J) 19} Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray^(K) and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse^(L) not harm you. ²⁰ But if you have gone astray^(M) while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”— ²¹ here the priest is to put the woman under this curse^(N)—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse^[b] among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. ²² May this water^(O) that brings a curse^(P) enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”

“‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.^(Q)”

²³ “‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll^(R) and then wash them off into the bitter water. ²⁴ He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her. ²⁵ The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the Lord^(S) and bring it to the altar. ²⁶ The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial^[c] offering^(T) and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. ²⁷ If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse.^{(U) 28} If, however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.

²⁹ “‘This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray^(V) and makes herself impure while married to her husband,