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Numbers 5

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Maintaining Camp Holiness 1–4

1
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
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Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead: ​
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Both male and female shall ye put out, without the camp shall ye put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell. ​
4
And the children of Israel did so, and put them out without the camp: as the LORD spake unto Moses, so did the children of Israel.

Restitution for Trespass 5–10

5
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
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Speak unto the children of Israel, When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass against the LORD, and that person be guilty; ​
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Then they shall confess their sin which they have done: and he shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof, and add unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed. ​
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But if the man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompensed unto the LORD, even to the priest; beside the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him. ​
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And every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his.
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And every man's hallowed things shall be his: whatsoever any man giveth the priest, it shall be his.

The Law of the Jealousy Offering 11–31

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And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
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Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him, ​
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And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner;
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And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled: ​
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Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. ​
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And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD:
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And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water: ​
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And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and uncover the woman's head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse: ​
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And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse:
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But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband:
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Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; ​
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And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.
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And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water: ​
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And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter.
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Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman's hand, and shall wave the offering before the LORD, and offer it upon the altar:
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And the priest shall take an handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water.
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And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people. ​
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And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. ​
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This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled;
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Or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law.
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Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Numbers 5

Verse 2

every leper… defiled by the dead — Three causes of uncleanness are named: leprosy (tsara'), a flowing issue (zub, Lev 15:2) and contact with a dead person (nephesh; compare Num 9:6). The leper already had to 'dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be' (Lev 13:46); the command applies the same removal to all three.

Verse 3

in the midst whereof I dwell — The reason given is the LORD's own presence in the camp, the ground also of Deut 23:14: 'the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp… therefore shall thy camp be holy.' Male and female alike are put out. Paul draws on the same principle for the church: 'put away from among yourselves that wicked person' (1 Cor 5:13).

Verse 6

a trespass against the LORD — Ma'al is breach of faith. A wrong done to a neighbour is counted as unfaithfulness to God, as in Lev 6:2: 'commit a trespass against the LORD, and lie unto his neighbour.' The same word names the wife's offence in vv.12 and 27, 'a trespass against him'.

Verse 7

add unto it the fifth part — Confession (yadah, the verb of Lev 5:5) comes first; then restitution of the principal plus a fifth, given to the one wronged. Lev 6:5 sets the same measure for goods falsely sworn about, paid 'in the day of his trespass offering'. Repayment accompanies the offering and does not replace it.

Verse 8

no kinsman — Go'el is the near relative who redeems, as in Lev 25:25. If none survives to receive the payment, it is made 'unto the LORD, even to the priest', in addition to 'the ram of the atonement'. A wrong is not left unrepaid because the injured party is gone.

Verse 12

go aside — Satah, to turn from the right way. It is used four times in this chapter of the wife (vv.12, 19, 20, 29) and elsewhere only in Prov 4:15 and 7:25 ('go not astray in her paths'). The offence is again ma'al, 'a trespass against him', as in v.6; Prov 2:17 calls such a wife one who 'forgetteth the covenant of her God'.

Verse 14

the spirit of jealousy — Qin'ah is jealousy, and 'spirit' (ruach) makes it a rising impulse in the husband; 'jealousy is the rage of a man' (Prov 6:34). The verse states both cases, she defiled or not defiled, because the rite that follows serves each: the curse for the guilty (v.27), freedom for the clean (v.28).

Verse 15

barley meal — An ordinary meal offering was 'fine flour', with oil and frankincense (Lev 2:1). This has neither, like the flour sin offering brought in place of birds (Lev 5:11); barley is named as an offering nowhere else in the Law. It is 'an offering of memorial' (zikkaron), 'bringing iniquity to remembrance' (zakar), as in 1 Kgs 17:18.

Verse 17

the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle — The water is 'holy' and the vessel is clay (cheres); the dust is taken from the tabernacle's own floor. What the woman drinks has thus been in the place of the LORD's dwelling (v.3), where the oath is sworn 'before the LORD' (v.18).

Verse 18

uncover the woman's head — The verb is para, to let go bare; it is used also of the leper's 'head bare' (Lev 13:45) and of the uncovered heads forbidden to Aaron's sons in mourning (Lev 10:6). She stands 'before the LORD', with the offering of memorial in her hands and the priest holding 'the bitter water that causeth the curse'.

Verse 21

a curse and an oath — Alah, curse, and shebu'ah, oath: if guilty, her name becomes a form of swearing by which others pray evil, as with Zedekiah and Ahab, 'The LORD make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab' (Jer 29:22). 'Rot' renders naphal, the common verb 'to fall'; the thigh is made to fall, and the belly to swell.

Verse 23

blot them out — The priest writes the curses 'in a book' (sepher) and wipes the writing off into the water (machah), which she then drinks (v.24). The same verb is used of the LORD forgiving, 'I… am he that blotteth out thy transgressions' (Isa 43:25), and of Moses' prayer, 'blot me… out of thy book' (Ex 32:32).

Verse 27

shall be a curse among her people — The result matches the oath of vv.21–24: the water 'become bitter' (v.24), the belly swells, the thigh rots, and she becomes 'a curse'. The sentence is the LORD's own: in v.21 'the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot'.

Verse 28

she shall be free, and shall conceive seed — Naqah, to be clear or unpunished: the verb of v.19, 'be thou free from this bitter water', and of v.31, where the man is 'guiltless from iniquity' and the woman, if guilty, 'shall bear her iniquity'. The clean wife is not harmed, and the promise of seed is given to her.