Numbers

¹The LORD said to Moses,

²"Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has a skin disease, anyone with a bodily discharge, or anyone who is ceremonially unclean because of a dead body."

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

⁴The Israelites did this; they sent them outside the camp. They did just as the LORD had instructed Moses.

⁵The LORD said to Moses,

⁶"Say to the Israelites: When a man or woman wrongs another in any way and is unfaithful to the LORD, that person is guilty."

⁷"They must confess the sin they have committed. Full restitution must be made along with an additional fifth of its value, and everything must be given to the one who was wronged."

⁸"But if that person has no close relative to whom restitution can be made, the restitution belongs to the LORD and must be given to the priest, along with the ram by which atonement is made for the wrongdoer."

⁹"All the sacred contributions the Israelites bring to a priest will belong to him."

¹⁰"Sacred things belong to their owners, but what anyone gives to the priest will belong to the priest."

¹¹Then the LORD said to Moses,

¹²"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: If a man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him

¹³by sleeping with another man, 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 —

¹⁴and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife though she is not impure — or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is pure —

¹⁵then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also bring an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder-offering 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 and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse."

¹⁹"Then the priest shall 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 impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you.'"

²⁰"But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by sleeping with a man other than your husband —"

²¹"here the priest is to put the woman under this curse — 'may the LORD cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell.'"

²²"May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells and your womb miscarries." Then the woman is to say, "Amen. So be it."

²³"The priest is to write these curses on a scroll 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, and bring it to the altar."

²⁶"The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial offering 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 among her people."

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 and makes herself impure while married to her husband,"

³⁰"or when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest shall 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 of her sin."