Numbers 5: Verse-by-Verse Commentary (with Videos)

¹Then the LORD said to Moses,

²“Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.

³You must send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.”

⁴So the Israelites did this, sending such people outside the camp. They did just as the LORD had instructed Moses.

⁵And the LORD said to Moses,

⁶“Tell the Israelites that when a man or woman acts unfaithfully against the LORD by committing any sin against another, that person is guilty

⁷and must confess the sin he has committed. He must make full restitution, add a fifth to its value, and give all this to the one he has wronged.

⁸But if the man has no 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 of atonement, by which the atonement is made for him.

⁹Every sacred contribution the Israelites bring to the priest shall belong to him.

¹⁰Each man’s sacred gifts are his own, but whatever he gives to the priest will belong to the priest.”

¹¹Then the LORD said to Moses,

¹²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him

¹³by sleeping with another man, and it is concealed from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she was not caught in the act),

¹⁴and if a feeling of jealousy comes over her husband and he suspects his wife who has defiled herself—or if a feeling of jealousy comes over him and he suspects her even though she has not defiled herself—

¹⁵then he is to bring his wife to the priest. He must also bring for her an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He is not to pour oil over it or put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, an offering of memorial as a reminder of iniquity.

¹⁶The priest is to bring the wife forward and have her stand before the LORD.

¹⁷Then he is to take some holy water in a clay jar and put some of the dust from the tabernacle floor into the water.

¹⁸After the priest has the woman stand before the LORD, he is to let down her hair and place in her hands the grain offering of memorial, which is the grain offering for jealousy. The priest is to hold the bitter water that brings a curse.

¹⁹And he is to put the woman under oath and say to her, ‘If no other man has slept with you and you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband’s authority, may you be immune to this bitter water that brings a curse.

²⁰But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority and have defiled yourself and lain carnally with a man other than your husband’—

²¹and the priest shall have the woman swear under the oath of the curse—‘then may the LORD make you an attested curse among your people by making your thigh shrivel and your belly swell.

²²May this water that brings a curse enter your stomach and cause your belly to swell and your thigh to shrivel.’ Then the woman is to say, ‘Amen, Amen.’

²³And the priest shall write these curses on a scroll and wash them off into the bitter water.

²⁴He is to have the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and it will enter her and may cause her bitter suffering.

²⁵The priest shall take from her hand the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the LORD, and bring it to the altar.

²⁶Then the priest is to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial portion and burn it on the altar; after that he is to have the woman drink the water.

²⁷When he has made her drink the water, if she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, then the water that brings a curse will enter her and cause bitter suffering; her belly will swell, her thigh will shrivel, and she will become accursed among her people.

²⁸But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will be unaffected and able to conceive children.

²⁹This is the law of jealousy when a wife goes astray and defiles herself while under her husband’s authority,

³⁰or when a feeling of jealousy comes over a husband and he suspects his wife. He is to have the woman stand before the LORD, and the priest is to apply to her this entire law.

³¹The husband will be free from guilt, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”