Numbers 5 AMPC

1. THE Lord said to Moses,

2. Command the Israelites that they put outside the camp every leper and everyone who has a discharge, and whoever is defiled by [coming in contact with] the dead.

3. Both male and female you shall put out; without the camp you shall put them, that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.

4. The Israelites did so, and put them outside the camp; as the Lord said to Moses, so the Israelites did.

5. And the Lord said to Moses,

6. Say to the Israelites, When a man or woman commits any sin that men commit by breaking faith with the Lord, and that person is guilty,

7. Then he shall confess the sin which he has committed, and he shall make restitution for his wrong in full, and add a fifth to it, and give it to him whom he has wronged.

8. But if the man [wronged] has no kinsman to whom the restitution may be made, let it be given to the Lord for the priest, besides the ram of atonement with which atonement shall be made for the offender.

9. And every offering of all the holy things of the Israelites which they bring to the priest shall be his.

10. And every man's hallowed things shall be the priest's; whatever any man gives the priest shall be his.

11. And the Lord said to Moses,

12. Say to the Israelites, If any man's wife goes astray and commits an offense of guilt against him,

13. And a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband and it is kept secret though she is defiled, and there is no witness against her nor was she taken in the act,

14. And if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he is jealous and suspicious of his wife who has defiled herself–or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he is jealous and suspicious of his wife though she has not defiled herself–

15. Then shall the man bring his wife to the priest, and he shall bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephah of barley meal; but he shall pour no oil upon it nor put frankincense on it [symbols of favor and joy], for it is a cereal offering of jealousy and suspicion, a memorial offering bringing iniquity to remembrance.

16. And the priest shall bring her near and set her before the Lord.

17. And the priest shall take holy water [probably from the sacred laver] in an earthen vessel and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it in the water.

18. And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and let the hair of the woman's head hang loose, and put the meal offering of remembrance in her hands, which is the jealousy and suspicion offering. And the priest shall have in his hand the water of bitterness that brings the curse.

19. Then the priest shall make her take an oath, and say to the woman, If no man has lain with you and if you have not gone astray to uncleanness with another instead of your husband, then be free from any effect of this water of bitterness which brings the curse.

20. But if you have gone astray and you are defiled, some man having lain with you beside your husband,

21. Then the priest shall make the woman take the oath of the curse, and say to the woman, The Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people when the Lord makes your thigh fall away and your body swell.

22. May this water that brings the curse go into your bowels and make your body swell and your thigh fall away. And the woman shall say, So let it be, so let it be.

23. The priest shall then write these curses in a book and shall wash them off into the water of bitterness;

24. And he shall cause the woman to drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her [to try her] bitterly.

25. Then the priest shall take the cereal offering of jealousy and suspicion out of the woman's hand and shall wave the offering before the Lord and offer it upon the altar.

26. And the priest shall take a handful of the cereal offering as the memorial portion of it and burn it on the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water.

27. And when he has made her drink the water, then if she is defiled and has committed a trespass against her husband, the curse water which she drank shall be bitterness and cause her body to swell and her thigh to fall away, and the woman shall be a curse among her people.

28. But if the woman is not defiled and is clean, then she shall be free [from the curse] and be able to have children.

29. This is the law of jealousy and suspicion when a wife goes aside to another instead of her husband and is defiled,

30. Or when the spirit of jealousy and suspicion comes upon a man and he is jealous and suspicious of his wife; then shall he set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute on her all this law.

31. The [husband] shall be free from iniquity and guilt, and that woman [if guilty] shall bear her iniquity.