Numbers 5

1 And YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2 “Command the sons of Israel, and they send out of the camp every leper, and everyone with discharging, and everyone defiled by a body;

“Instruct the sons of Israel to cast out of the camp every leper, and those who have a flow of seed, and those who have been polluted because of the dead;

3 you send out from male even to female; you send them to the outside of the camp and they do not defile their camps in the midst of which I dwell.”

cast out of the camp both male and female, lest they contaminate it while I am dwelling with you.”

4 And the sons of Israel do so, and they send them out to the outside of the camp; as YHWH has spoken to Moses so the sons of Israel have done.

And the sons of Israel did so, and they cast them out, beyond the camp, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses.

5 And YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

6 “Speak to the sons of Israel: Man or woman, when they do any of the sins of man, by committing a trespass against YHWH, and that person [is] guilty,

“Say to the sons of Israel: A man or a woman, when they have done anything out of all the sins that often befall men, or if, by negligence, they have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and so have committed an offense,

7 and they have confessed their sin which they have done, then he has restored his guilt in its principal, and is adding its fifth to it, and has given [it] to him in reference to whom he has been guilty.

they shall confess their sin, and they shall restore the principle itself, plus a fifth part above it, to any against whom they have sinned.

8 And if the man has no redeemer to restore the guilt to, the guilt which is restored [is] to YHWH for the priest, apart from the ram of the atonements, whereby he makes atonement for him.

But if there would be no one to receive it, they shall give it to the Lord, and it shall be for the priest, except for the ram, which is offered for expiation, in order to be a pleasing victim.

9 And every raised-offering of all the holy things of the sons of Israel, which they bring near to the priest, becomes his;

Likewise, all the first-fruits, which the sons of Israel offer, belong to the priest,

10 and any man’s hallowed things become his; that which any man gives to the priest becomes his.”

with whatever is offered by each one at the Sanctuary, and which is delivered into the hands of the priest; it shall be his.”

11 And YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

12 “Speak to the sons of Israel, and you have said to them: When any man’s wife turns aside, and has committed a trespass against him,

“Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: The man whose wife will have gone astray, and, disdaining her husband,

13 and a man has lain with her [with] the seed [from] intercourse, and it has been hid from the eyes of her husband, and concealed, and she has been defiled, and there is no witness against her, and she has not been caught,

will have slept with another man, and if her husband cannot discover it, but the adultery is secret, and if it cannot be proved by witnesses, because she was not caught in the shameful act,

14 and a spirit of jealousy has passed over him, and he has been jealous [for] his wife, and she has been defiled—or a spirit of jealousy has passed over him, and he has been jealous [for] his wife, and she has not been defiled—

if the spirit of jealousy stirs up the husband against his wife, who either has been polluted or is being assailed with a false suspicion,

15 then the man has brought in his wife to the priest, and he has brought in her offering for her—a tenth of the ephah of barley meal; he does not pour oil on it, nor does he put frankincense on it, for it [is] a present of jealousy, a present of memorial, causing remembrance of iniquity.

he shall bring her to the priest, and he shall offer an oblation for her, a tenth part of native barley meal. He shall not pour oil over it, nor shall he place frankincense on it, because it is a sacrifice for jealousy, or an oblation investigating adultery.

16 And the priest has brought her near, and has caused her to stand before YHWH,

Therefore, the priest shall offer it, and he shall set it in the sight of the Lord.

17 and the priest has taken holy water in an earthen vessel, and the priest takes of the dust which is on the floor of the Dwelling Place, and has put [it] into the water,

And he shall take up holy water in an earthen vessel, and he shall cast a little earth from the pavement of the tabernacle into it.

18 and the priest has caused the woman to stand before YHWH, and has uncovered the woman’s head, and has given the present of the memorial into her hands (it [is] a present of jealousy), and the bitter waters which cause the curse are in the hand of the priest.

And while the woman stands before the Lord, he shall uncover her head, and he shall place over her hands the sacrifice of recollection and oblation of jealousy. But he shall take hold of the most bitter waters, in which he has gathered curses with loathing.

19 And the priest has caused her to swear, and has said to the woman, If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside [to] uncleanness under your husband, be free from these bitter waters which cause the curse;

And he shall bind her by an oath, and he shall say: ‘If another man has not slept with you, and if you have not been polluted by forsaking the bed of your husband, these most bitter waters, into which I have gathered curses, shall not harm you.

20 and you, if you have turned aside under your husband, and if you have been defiled, and a man commits his intercourse with you besides your husband—

But if you have turned away from your husband, and also have been defiled, and have lain together with another man,

21 then the priest has caused the woman to swear with an oath of execration, and the priest has said to the woman—YHWH gives you for an execration and for a curse in the midst of your people, in YHWH’s giving your thigh to fall and your belly to swell,

these curses shall be thrown upon you: May the Lord turn you into a curse and an example among all his people. May he cause your thigh to rot, and may your abdomen swell up and burst out.

22 and these waters which cause the curse have gone into your bowels to cause the belly to swell and the thigh to fall; and the woman has said, Amen, Amen.

May the cursed waters enter into your stomach, and may your womb swell and your thigh rot.’ And the woman shall respond: ‘Amen, amen.’

23 And the priest has written these execrations in a scroll, and has blotted [them] out with the bitter waters,

And the priest shall write these curses in a little book, and then he shall erase them with the very bitter waters, into which he had gathered the curses,

24 and has caused the woman to drink the bitter waters which cause the curse, and the waters which cause the curse have entered into her for bitter things.

and he shall give it to her to drink. And when she has emptied it,

25 And the priest has taken the present of jealousy out of the hand of the woman, and has waved the present before YHWH, and has brought it near to the altar;

the priest shall take from her hand the sacrifice of jealousy, and he shall elevate it before the Lord, and he shall impose it upon the altar. Yet only after he first

26 and the priest has taken a handful of the present, its memorial, and has made incense on the altar, and afterward causes the woman to drink the water;

takes a handful of the sacrifice from that which is offered, and burns it upon the altar, and then he may give the most bitter waters to the woman as a drink.

27 indeed, he has caused her to drink the water, and it has come to pass, if she has been defiled and commits a trespass against her husband, that the waters which cause the curse have gone into her for bitter things, and her belly has swelled, and her thigh has fallen, and the woman has become an execration in the midst of her people.

And when she drinks it, if she has been defiled, and, having despised her husband, is guilty of adultery, the curse shall pass through her, and as her belly swells up, her thigh shall decay, and the woman shall become a curse and an example to all the people.

28 And if the woman has not been defiled, and is clean, then she has been acquitted, and has been sown [with] seed.

But if she has not been defiled, she shall be unharmed and she shall bear children.

29 This [is] the law of jealousies when a wife turns aside under her husband and has been defiled,

This is the law for jealousy. If a woman has turned aside from her husband, and if she has been polluted,

30 or when a spirit of jealousy passes over a man and he has been jealous of his wife, then he has caused the woman to stand before YHWH, and the priest has done to her all this law,

and if the husband, being stirred up by the spirit of jealousy, has brought her before the sight of the Lord, and the priest has acted toward her according to all that has been written:

31 and the man has been acquitted from iniquity, and that woman bears her iniquity.”

then the husband shall be without guilt, and she shall bear her iniquity.”