Numbers 5

1The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, 2“Command the Israelites to send out of the camp anyone who has a serious skin disease or a discharge, and anyone made unclean by a dead body. 3Whether male or female, you must send them out and put them outside the camp. Then they will not defile the camps of the people in whose midst I dwell.” 4The Israelites did so; they sent them outside the camp. As the LORD had told Moses, so the Israelites did.

5The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, 6“Tell the Israelites: ‘When a man or a woman does any wrong to another person, thereby breaking faith with the LORD, and that person is guilty, 7they must confess their sin openly. The guilty person must pay back the full amount owed for the wrong, add a fifth to it, and hand it over to the one who was harmed. 8If the injured person has died and left no close relative to receive repayment, then what is repaid for the wrong goes to the LORD, which means to the priest. This is besides the ram of atonement, with which the priest makes atonement for the guilty one. 9Every contribution among all the holy gifts that the Israelites bring to the priest will belong to him. 10Each person’s holy gifts are their own to give, but whatever anyone gives to a priest belongs to that priest.’”

11The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, 12“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: ‘Suppose a man’s wife strays from him and breaks faith with him, 13and another man sleeps with her, but it is hidden from her husband; she has defiled herself in secret, there is no witness against her, and she was not caught, 14and a fit of jealousy comes over him and he becomes jealous of his wife, and she has in fact defiled herself; or if a fit of jealousy comes over him and he becomes jealous of his wife though she has not defiled herself, 15the man is to bring his wife to the priest. He must also bring the offering required for her, about 2 quarts of barley flour. He is not to pour oil on it or add frankincense, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance that calls guilt to mind. 16The priest is to bring her near and set her in front of the LORD. 17Then the priest is to put holy water in a clay pot, take some of the dust that lies on the tabernacle floor, and add it to the water. 18The priest is to set the woman before the LORD, let down her hair, and put the grain offering of remembrance, the grain offering for jealousy, into her hands. In his own hand the priest is to hold the bitter water that carries the curse. 19Then the priest is to put her under oath and say to her, “If no man but your husband has slept with you, and you have not turned aside to uncleanness while you are bound to him, you will be free from the harm of this bitter water that carries the curse. 20But if you have turned aside while bound to your husband, if you have defiled yourself and someone besides your husband has slept with you —“ 21then the priest is to make the woman swear the oath of the curse, and he is to say to her, “May the LORD make you a byword in curses and oaths among your people, when the LORD makes your thigh waste away and your belly swell. 22May this water that carries the curse go inside you, to make your belly swell and your thigh waste away.” And the woman is to say, “Amen, amen.” 23The priest is to write these curses in a scroll and then rinse the writing off into the bitter water. 24He is to have the woman drink the bitter water that carries the curse, and this water will go into her and bring bitter pain. 25From the woman’s hand the priest is to take the grain offering for jealousy. He is to wave the offering before the LORD and present it at the altar. 26Then the priest is to scoop up a handful of the grain offering, its memorial portion, and burn it on the altar, and only then make the woman drink the water. 27Once she has drunk the water, if she has in fact defiled herself and broken faith with her husband, the water that carries the curse will go into her and bring bitter pain. Her belly will swell, her thigh will waste away, and her name will become a curse among her people. 28But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will be cleared, and she will conceive children. 29This is the law for cases of jealousy, when a wife who is bound to her husband turns aside and defiles herself, 30or when a fit of jealousy comes over a man and he becomes jealous of his wife. He is to have the woman stand before the LORD, and the priest is to do for her everything this law requires. 31The husband will be clear of guilt, but the woman herself must bear her guilt.’”