The Unclean Are Isolated
Numbers 5, verse 1. Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Numbers 5, verse 2. “Command the children of Israel to put out of the camp every leper, everyone who has an involuntary discharge of semen, and whoever becomes defiled by a corpse. Numbers 5, verse 3. You shall put out both male and female; you shall put them outside the camp, so they may not defile their camps, in the midst of which I dwell.” Numbers 5, verse 4. So the children of Israel did so, and sent them outside the camp; as the Lord spoke to Moses, so the children of Israel did.
Confession and Restitution
Numbers 5, verse 5. Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Numbers 5, verse 6. “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘When a man or woman commits one of the sins that humans commit, and actually disregards a neighbor, that soul has committed a trespass. Numbers 5, verse 7. Then he shall confess openly the sin he committed. He shall make restitution for his trespass in the capital amount, plus one-fifth of it, and repay the one he wronged. Numbers 5, verse 8. But if the man has no close relative to make restitution on his behalf for the trespass, the restitution for the wrong shall go to the Lord for the priest, in addition to the ram of the atonement with which atonement is made for him. Numbers 5, verse 9. Every offering that is sanctified among the children of Israel, which they bring to the Lord for the priest, shall be his. Numbers 5, verse 10. So the sanctified offerings of each man shall be his; whatever any man gives the priest shall be his.’”
Unfaithful Wives
Numbers 5, verse 11. Moreover the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Numbers 5, verse 12. “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘If any man's wife commits transgression and disregards and despises him, Numbers 5, verse 13. and someone has sexual intercourse with her, and she conceals it from her husband and keeps it hidden, but she is defiled, and there was no witness against her, nor was she caught— Numbers 5, verse 14. and if a spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he becomes jealous of his wife, who is defiled; or if a spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he becomes jealous of his wife, although she is not defiled— Numbers 5, verse 15. then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. He shall bring the gift required for her, one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil on it, and put no frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of jealousy, an offering for remembering, for bringing sin to remembrance. Numbers 5, verse 16. ‘Then the priest shall bring her near and set her before the Lord. Numbers 5, verse 17. The priest shall take clean running water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust on the floor of the tabernacle of testimony and throw it into the water. Numbers 5, verse 18. Then the priest shall stand the woman before the Lord, uncover the woman's head, and put the sacrifice for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy; and the priest shall have in his hand the water of conviction that brings a curse. Numbers 5, verse 19. Then the priest shall put her under oath, and say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you have not committed transgression to be defiled while under your husband's jurisdiction, be innocent from this water of conviction that brings a curse. Numbers 5, verse 20. But if you committed transgression and defiled yourself under your husband's jurisdiction, and some man other than your husband had sexual relations with you”— Numbers 5, verse 21. then the priest shall put the woman under oath by the words of the oath of this curse; and the priest shall say to the woman, “the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh rot and your belly swell; Numbers 5, verse 22. and may this water that causes this curse go into your stomach, and make your belly swell and your thigh rot.” Then the woman shall say, “May it be so.” Numbers 5, verse 23. ‘Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and wipe them off into the water of conviction that brings a curse. Numbers 5, verse 24. Then he shall give the woman a drink of this water of conviction that brings a curse, and it shall enter her. Numbers 5, verse 25. Then the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman's hand, put the sacrifice before the Lord, and bring it to the altar; Numbers 5, verse 26. and the priest shall take a handful of the sacrifice as its memorial portion, offer it on the altar, and afterward give the woman the water to drink. Numbers 5, verse 27. So it shall be, if she is defiled but kept it hidden from her husband, then the water of conviction that brings a curse will enter her, and her belly will swell, her thigh will rot, and the woman will become a curse among her people. Numbers 5, verse 28. But if the woman is not defiled, but is clean, then she shall be innocent and may conceive children. Numbers 5, verse 29. ‘This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, while under her husband's jurisdiction, transgresses and defiles herself, Numbers 5, verse 30. or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man, and he becomes jealous of his wife; then he shall stand the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute all this law upon her. Numbers 5, verse 31. Then the man shall be innocent of guilt, but that woman shall bear her guilt.’”