Numbers 5
Sent Outside the Camp, and a Cup of Bitter Water
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Exclusion of the Unclean
5:1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
5:2Command the sons of Israel to send out of the camp everyone with leprosy, everyone with a seminal discharge, and everyone unclean through a dead person.
5:3Send out male and female alike, outside the camp, so that they do not defile their camps, where I reside among them.
5:4The sons of Israel did so and sent them outside the camp. As the Lord spoke to Moses, so the sons of Israel did.
Confession and Restitution
5:5The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
5:6Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: When a man or woman commits any human sin, acts with deliberate disregard, and that person commits an offense,
5:7That person shall confess the sin committed, repay the offense’s full amount, add one-fifth to it, and give it to the person wronged.
5:8If the man has no next of kin to receive repayment, the repayment made to the Lord shall belong to the priest, besides the ram of propitiation with which propitiation is made for him.
5:9Every first portion from all the things consecrated among the sons of Israel that they bring to the Lord, to the priest, shall belong to him.
5:10Each person’s consecrated things shall be his; whatever a man gives to the priest shall belong to him.
The Mandate
5:11The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
5:12Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: If any man’s wife transgresses and treats him with contempt,
5:13And someone lies with her in a bedding of seed, escapes her husband’s notice, and conceals it, while she is defiled, with no witness concerning her and without her being caught,
5:14And a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, when she is defiled—or a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, when she is not defiled—
5:15The man shall bring his wife to the priest and present the gift on her behalf: one-tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He shall not pour oil on it or put frankincense on it, because it is a sacrifice of jealousy, a memorial sacrifice bringing sin to remembrance.
The Ritual Elements
5:16The priest shall bring her near and stand her before the Lord.
5:17The priest shall take clean, living water in an earthenware vessel. He shall take some earth from the floor of the Tent of Testimony and put it into the water.
5:18The priest shall stand the woman before the Lord, uncover her head, and put the memorial sacrifice—the sacrifice of jealousy—on her hands. In the priest’s hand shall be this curse-bringing water of testing.
5:19The priest shall put her under oath and say to the woman: If no one has lain with you, and you have not transgressed into defilement while under your own husband, be unharmed by this curse-bringing water of testing.
5:20But if you have transgressed while under a husband, or have become defiled, and someone other than your husband has put his bedding in you—
5:21The priest shall put the woman under the oaths of this curse and say to her: May the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh collapse and your belly swell.
5:22This curse-bringing water shall enter your belly, making the belly swell and your thigh collapse. The woman shall say: May it be, may it be.
The Divine Verdict
5:23The priest shall write these curses in a scroll and wipe them off into the curse-bringing water of testing.
5:24He shall make the woman drink the curse-bringing water of testing, and the curse-bringing water of testing shall enter her.
5:25The priest shall take the sacrifice of jealousy from the woman’s hand, place the sacrifice before the Lord, and bring it near the altar.
5:26The priest shall take a handful from the sacrifice as its memorial portion and offer it up on the altar. Afterward he shall make the woman drink the water.
5:27If she is defiled and has concealed it from her husband, the curse-bringing water of testing shall enter her; her belly shall swell and her thigh collapse, and the woman shall become a curse among her people.
5:28If the woman has not been defiled and is clean, she shall be unharmed and shall produce seed.
5:29This is the law of jealousy, when a wife transgresses while under a husband and becomes defiled,
5:30Or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife. He shall stand his wife before the Lord, and the priest shall perform all this law for her.
5:31The man shall be free from sin, and that woman shall bear her sin.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.