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Numbers 5
Legacy Standard Bible
Numbers 5
Legacy Standard Bible
Unclean Sent Outside the Camp
5 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the sons of Israel that they (A)send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a (B)discharge and everyone who is [a](C)unclean because of a dead person. 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 (D)in their midst.” 4 And the sons of Israel did so and sent them outside the camp; just as Yahweh had spoken to Moses, thus the sons of Israel did.
Restitution for Sins
5 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 6 “Speak to the sons of Israel, ‘(E)When a man or woman commits any of the sins of mankind, acting unfaithfully against Yahweh, and that person is guilty, 7 then [b]he shall (F)confess [c]his sins which [d]he has committed, and he (G)shall make restitution in full for his wrong and add to it one-fifth of it and give it to him whom he has [e]wronged. 8 But if the man has no kinsman redeemer to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution which is made for the wrong must go to Yahweh for the priest, besides the ram of atonement, by which atonement is made for him. 9 (H)Also every [f]contribution pertaining to all the holy gifts of the sons of Israel, which they bring near to the priest, shall be his. 10 So every man’s holy gifts shall be his; whatever any man gives to the priest, it (I)becomes his.’”
The Statutes of Jealousy
11 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 12 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘If any man’s wife (J)goes astray and is unfaithful to him, 13 and a man lies (K)sexually with her, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is [g]undetected; but she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, and she has not been caught in the act, 14 [h]if a spirit of (L)jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife and she has defiled herself, or if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife but she has not defiled herself, 15 the man shall then bring his wife to the priest and shall bring as [i]an offering for her one-tenth of an [j]ephah of barley meal; he shall not pour oil on it nor put frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, (M)a reminder of iniquity.
16 ‘Then the priest shall bring her near and have her stand before Yahweh, 17 and the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel; and the priest shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. 18 The priest shall then have the woman stand before Yahweh and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose, and he shall place the grain offering of remembrance [k]in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy; and in the hand of the priest is to be the water of bitterness that brings curses. 19 Then the priest shall have her swear an oath and shall say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you have not (N)gone astray into [l]defilement, being under the authority of your husband, be free from this water of bitterness that brings curses; 20 if you, however, have (O)gone astray, being under the authority of your husband, and if you have defiled yourself, and a man other than your husband has lain with you” 21 (then the priest shall have the woman (P)swear with the oath of the curse, and the priest shall say to the woman), “Yahweh make you a curse and an oath among your people by Yahweh making your thigh fall away and your abdomen swell; 22 and this water that brings curses shall go into your [m]stomach and make your abdomen swell and your thigh fall away.” And the woman (Q)shall say, “Amen. Amen.”
23 ‘The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall [n]wash them off into the water of bitterness. 24 Then he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings curses, so that the water which brings a curse will go into her to cause bitterness. 25 And the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, and he shall wave the grain offering before Yahweh and bring it near to the altar; 26 and (R)the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial offering and offer it up in smoke on the altar, and afterward he shall make the woman drink the water. 27 So he will have her drink the water, and it will be that, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, that the water which brings curses will go into her to cause bitterness, and her abdomen will swell and her thigh will fall away, and the woman will become (S)a curse among her people. 28 But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will then be free and conceive a seed.
29 ‘This is the law of jealousy: when a wife, being under the authority of her husband, (T)goes astray and defiles herself, 30 or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife, he shall then make the woman stand before Yahweh, and the priest shall apply all this law to her. 31 Moreover, the man will be free from [o]guilt, but that woman shall (U)bear her [p]guilt.’”
Footnotes
- Numbers 5:2 Or defiled, cf. 5:3, 13, 14
- Numbers 5:7 Lit they
- Numbers 5:7 Lit their
- Numbers 5:7 Lit they have
- Numbers 5:7 Lit guilty
- Numbers 5:9 Lit heave offering
- Numbers 5:13 Lit concealed
- Numbers 5:14 Lit and
- Numbers 5:15 Lit her
- Numbers 5:15 An ephah was approx. 21 qt. or 23 l
- Numbers 5:18 Lit on her palms
- Numbers 5:19 Or uncleanness
- Numbers 5:22 Or inward parts
- Numbers 5:23 Lit wipe
- Numbers 5:31 Or iniquity
- Numbers 5:31 Or iniquity
Numbers 5
The Voice
Numbers 5
The Voice
5 The Eternal One spoke to Moses.
Now that the arrangement of the camp, the ordering of the families, and the organization of their defenses is complete, God begins sanctifying the people. Because this camp is a holy place—a place where God has chosen to dwell among His people—purity is an obvious concern. But beyond the religious regulations, concern for cleanliness and rules for social interaction are essential because of the vast number of people traveling together. There are more than 600,000 males over the society’s average age of 20 years, and logically these men make up one-quarter of society. The laws given to the people are not simply religious instruction, but are necessary for the good morale and accompanying social concerns of such a large population, concerns such as transmission of diseases, mistreatment of individuals, and suppression of crime.
Eternal One: 2-3 Tell the Israelites to send outside of the camp anyone, male or female, who is ritually unclean and could spread it to others, namely those with skin lesions, and discharges, or who have touched a dead person. They need to stay outside of the camp in order not to ritually contaminate My dwelling place among them.
4 The Israelites did exactly that and sent them outside the camp, just as the Eternal told Moses.
5 The Eternal One continued.
Eternal One (to Moses): 6 Tell the Israelites that sinning against each other is just like abandoning Me. All incur guilt, men and women alike. 7 He or she must confess, then pay back in kind (if the crime is robbery, or some material offense) what he or she has cost to the wronged person and add one-fifth more. 8 If there are no people in the wronged party’s immediate family to receive the payback, then it should go[a] to the priest along with a ram, which the guilty party shall supply as an atonement sacrifice. 9-10 The priest also gets anything an Israelite donates. Sacred gifts, anything—they then belong to the priest who receives them.
11 (continuing instructions to Moses) 12 Tell the Israelites that if a married woman sneaks off to commit adultery, 13 that is, if a man has sexual relations with her but her husband doesn’t know, even if no one can say for certain that she tarnished herself because no one saw or caught her, 14 and her husband feels suspicious and becomes jealous, whether or not she’s guilty; 15 then he should bring his wife to the priest along with the requisite offering: two quarts of barley flour. Because it’s an offering for this particular purpose, jealousy (namely, a grain offering that brings back to mind some kind of wrongdoing), he shouldn’t include any oil or incense with it.
16-19 Then the priest will set her in front of Me, mix dust from the congregation tent’s floor into a jar of holy water, and loosen her hair. He’ll make her take an oath and hold the grain offering of jealousy while he holds the curse-causing, bitter water and says, “If you are innocent of this charge, if no man had sexual relations with you, if you didn’t reject your husband’s authority and tarnish yourself; then let this bitter water have no curse on you. 20 But if you are guilty of rejecting your husband’s authority and having sexual relations with someone other than your husband,” 21 [here the priest should make the woman say the cursing-oath], “then may the Eternal One make your name a shunning reproach, an insult or a warning among the people, because you will have a miscarriage[b] and your belly will swell. 22 If you are guilty, may this curse-causing water run through your bowels, make your belly swell, and your womb miscarry.” And the woman shall say, “Amen. Let it be so.”
23 The priest will write these curses on a scroll and wash the words into the bitter water. 24 He’ll then make the woman drink the bitter water that will run right through her, causing terrible pain. 25 The priest will take the barley-flour jealousy offering that she was holding, raise it up high before the Me, bring it to the altar, 26 burn a handful (a memorial portion) of it into smoke on the altar, and then make the woman drink the water. 27 The effect (much pain with her belly swelling and her womb miscarrying) or lack thereof will show whether or not she’s guilty of marital unfaithfulness. If guilty, her name will be a curse among the Israelites. 28 If innocent and pure, she’ll be free from the water’s effects and still be able to have children.
This judgment ritual is a mixture of dust or ash and water to bring objectivity to the accusation of adultery on a wife. The result is either clearing her name or confirming the claim against her. The administration is reserved for the priest, and the results are final.
Eternal One: 29 This is what should be done in a jealousy case, when a woman is rejecting her husband’s authority and sleeping with other men, 30 or simply if her husband gets jealous and suspicious of her. The husband will bring her before Me, and the priest will enact this law. 31 The man shall not be charged with anything or considered to have done wrong; the woman must deal with the consequences of her behavior.
Numbers 5
New International Version
Numbers 5
New International Version
The Purity of the Camp
5 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has a defiling skin disease[a](A) or a discharge(B) of any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean(C) because of a dead body.(D) 3 Send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.(E)” 4 The Israelites did so; they sent them outside the camp. They did just as the Lord had instructed Moses.
Restitution for Wrongs
5 The Lord said to Moses, 6 “Say to the Israelites: ‘Any man or woman who wrongs another in any way[b] and so is unfaithful(F) to the Lord is guilty(G) 7 and must confess(H) the sin they have committed. They must make full restitution(I) for the wrong they have done, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the person they have wronged. 8 But if that person has no close relative to whom restitution can be made for the wrong, the restitution belongs to the Lord and must be given to the priest, along with the ram(J) with which atonement is made for the wrongdoer.(K) 9 All the sacred contributions the Israelites bring to a priest will belong to him.(L) 10 Sacred things belong to their owners, but what they give to the priest will belong to the priest.(M)’”
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(N) and is unfaithful to him 13 so that another man has sexual relations with her,(O) 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(P) 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[c](Q) of barley flour(R) on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy,(S) a reminder-offering(T) 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(U) and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy,(V) while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse.(W) 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(X) and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse(Y) not harm you. 20 But if you have gone astray(Z) 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(AA)—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse[d] among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. 22 May this water(AB) that brings a curse(AC) enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”
“‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.(AD)”
23 “‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll(AE) 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(AF) and bring it to the altar. 26 The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial[e] offering(AG) 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.(AH) 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(AI) and makes herself impure while married to her husband, 30 or when feelings of jealousy(AJ) come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the Lord and is to apply this entire law to her. 31 The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences(AK) of her sin.’”
Footnotes
- Numbers 5:2 The Hebrew word for defiling skin disease, traditionally translated “leprosy,” was used for various diseases affecting the skin.
- Numbers 5:6 Or woman who commits any wrong common to mankind
- Numbers 5:15 That is, probably about 3 1/2 pounds or about 1.6 kilograms
- Numbers 5:21 That is, may he cause your name to be used in cursing (see Jer. 29:22); or, may others see that you are cursed; similarly in verse 27.
- Numbers 5:26 Or representative
Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)
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The Voice (VOICE)
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