Chapter 5
1Then AO said to Moses,
2“Command the Israelites to send away anyone from the camp with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.
3You must send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell among them.”
4So the Israelites did this, sending [such people] outside the camp. They did just as AO had instructed Moses.
5And AO said to Moses,
6“Tell the Israelites that when a man or woman sin against another by committing any acts unfaithfully against AO, that person is guilty.
7He must make full restitution and must confess the sin he has committed, add a fifth to its value and give all this to the one he has wronged.
8But if the man has no relative to whom restitution can be made for the wrong, the restitution belongs to AO and must be given to the priest along with the ram of atonement by which the atonement is made for him.
9Every sacred contribution the Israelites bring to the priest shall belong to him.
10Each man’s sacred gifts are his own [but] whatever [he] gives to the priest will belong to [the priest].”
11Then AO said to Moses,
12“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him
13by sleeping with another man and it is concealed from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she was not caught in the act),
14and if a feeling of jealousy comes over [her husband] and he suspects his wife who has defiled herself—or if a feeling of jealousy comes over him and he suspects her even though she has not defiled herself—
15then [he] is to bring his wife to the priest. He must also bring an offering for her of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He is not to pour oil over it or put frankincense on it because it is a grain offering for jealousy, an offering of memorial as a reminder of iniquity.
16The priest is to bring [the wife] forward and have her stand before AO.
17Then [he] is to take [some] holy water in a clay jar and put some of the dust from the tabernacle floor into the water.
18After the priest has the woman stand before AO, he is to let down her hair and place in her hands the grain offering of memorial which is the grain offering for jealousy. The priest is to hold the bitter water that brings a curse.
19And [he] is to put the woman under oath and say to her, ‘If no other man has slept with you and you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband’s authority, may you be immune to this bitter water that brings a curse.
20But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority and have defiled yourself and lain with a man carnally other than your husband’—
21and the priest shall have the woman swear under the oath of the curse—‘then may AO make you an attested curse among your people by making your thigh shrivel and your belly swell.
22May this water that brings a curse enter your stomach and cause your belly to swell and your thigh to shrivel.’ Then the woman is to say, ‘Amen, Amen.’
23And the priest shall write these curses on a scroll and wash them off into the bitter water.
24He is to have the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse and it will enter her and cause her bitter suffering.
25The priest shall take the grain offering for jealousy from [her] hand, wave [it] before AO and bring it to the altar.
26Then the priest is to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial portion and burn it on the altar; after that he is to have the woman drink the water.
27When he has made her drink the water if she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, then the water that brings a curse will enter her and cause bitter suffering, her belly will swell, her thigh will shrivel and she will become accursed among her people.
28But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will be unaffected and be able to conceive children.
29This is the law of jealousy when a wife goes astray while under her husband’s authority and defiles herself
30or when a feeling of jealousy comes over a husband and he suspects his wife. He is to have the woman stand before AO and the priest is to apply to her this entire law.
31The husband will be free from guilt but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”