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 ^(A)goes astray and is unfaithful to him, ¹³ and a man lies ^(B)sexually with her, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is ^[a]undetected; but she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, and she has not been caught in the act, ^14 [b]if a spirit of ^(C)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 ^[c]an offering for her one-tenth of an ^[d]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, ^(D)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 ^[e]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 ^(E)gone astray into ^[f]defilement, being under the authority of your husband, be free from this water of bitterness that brings curses; ²⁰ if you, however, have ^(F)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 ^(G)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 ^[g]stomach and make your abdomen swell and your thigh fall away.” And the woman ^(H)shall say, “Amen. Amen.”

²³ ‘The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall ^[h]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 ^(I)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 ^(J)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, ^(K)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 ^[i]guilt, but that woman shall ^(L)bear her ^[j]guilt.’”