Numbers 5
The Scriptures (ISR 1998)

1And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying,

2“Command the children of Yisra’ĕl to send out of the camp every leper, and everyone who has a discharge, and whoever becomes defileda for a being.

3“Send out both male and female, send them outside the camp, so that they do not defile their camps in the midst of which I dwell.”

4And the children of Yisra’ĕl did so, to send them outside the camp. As יהוה had spoken to Mosheh, so the children of Yisra’ĕl did.

5And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying,

6“Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, ‘When a man or woman commits any sin that men commit in trespass against יהוה, and that being is guilty,

7then they shall confess their sin which they have done. And he shall restore his guilt in its principal, plus one-fifth of it, and give it to whom he has been guilty.

8‘But if the man has no relative to restore the guilt to, the guilt which is restored goes to יהוה, for the priest, in addition to the ram of the atonement with which atonement is made for him.

9‘And every contribution of all the set-apart gifts of the children of Yisra’ĕl, which they bring to the priest, becomes his.

10‘And every man’s set-apart gifts becomes his, whatever any man gives the priest becomes his.’ ”

11And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying,

12“Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, and say to them, ‘When any man’s wife turns aside and has committed a trespass against him,

13and a man has intercourse with her, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and it is concealed that she has defiled herself, and there was no witness against her, nor was she caught,

14and a spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or a spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife although she has not defiled herself,

15then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. And he shall bring the offering for her, one-tenth of an ĕphah of barley flour. He is not to pour oil on it or put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of jealousy, an offering for remembering, for bringing crookedness to remembrance.

16‘And the priest shall bring her near, and shall make her stand before יהוה.

17‘And the priest shall take set-apart water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the Dwelling Place and put it into the water.

18‘And the priest shall make the woman stand before יהוה, and shall uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy, while the priest holds in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse.

19‘And the priest shall make her swear, and say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanness under your husband’s authority, be free from this bitter water that brings a curse.

20“But if you have turned aside under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has lain with you” –

21then the priest shall make the woman swear with the oath of the curse, and he shall say to the woman – “יהוה make you a curse and an oath among your people, when יהוה makes your thigh waste away and your belly swell,

22and this water that causes the curse shall go into your inward parts, and make your belly swell and your thigh waste away.” And the woman shall say, “Amĕn, amĕn.”

23‘And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and shall wipe them off into the bitter water,

24and shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter her to become bitter.

25‘And the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering before יהוה, and bring it to the altar.

26‘And the priest shall take a hand filled with the offering, as its remembrance offering, and burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water.

27‘And when he has made her drink the water, then it shall be, if she has defiled herself and has committed a trespass against her husband, that the water that brings the curse shall enter her and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall waste away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people.

28‘But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she shall be clear and shall conceive children.

29‘This is the Torah of jealousy, when a wife turns aside under her husband’s authority and defiles herself,

30or when a spirit of jealousy comes upon a man, and he becomes jealous of his wife. Then he shall make the woman stand before יהוה, and the priest shall do to her all this Torah.

31‘And the man shall be clear from crookedness, but the woman bear her crookedness.’ ”

Numbers 4
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