Purity of the Camp
1Yahweh spoke to Moses. He said, 2“Command the Israelites to send away from the camp everyone with a skin disease, everyone with a discharge, and everyone defiled by contact with a corpse. 3You shall send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp, so that they do not defile the camps in whose midst I dwell.” 4The Israelites did so; they sent them outside the camp. Just as Yahweh had spoken to Moses, so the Israelites did.
Restitution for Wrongs
5Yahweh spoke to Moses. He said, 6“Speak to the Israelites: When a man or woman commits any of the sins that people commit, breaking faith with Yahweh, that person incurs guilt. 7They shall confess the sin they have committed. The guilty party shall make full restitution for the wrong, add a fifth of its value to it, and give it to the one wronged. 8But if that person has no relative to receive the restitution, the restitution belongs to Yahweh, to the priest — in addition to the ram of atonement by which atonement is made for the guilty party. 9Every contribution among all the holy gifts that the Israelites bring to the priest shall belong to him. 10Each one’s holy gifts shall be his own; whatever anyone gives to the priest shall be his.”
The Test for a Suspected Wife
11Yahweh spoke to Moses. He said, 12“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: If any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him, 13so that another man sleeps with her and it is hidden from her husband — she has defiled herself in secret, with no witness against her and she has not been caught — 14and a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he suspects his wife, whether or not she has defiled herself, 15then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. He shall bring for her an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour; he shall not pour oil on it or put frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance that brings iniquity to mind. 16The priest shall bring her near and set her before Yahweh. 17Then the priest shall take holy water in a clay vessel, and take some dust from the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. 18The priest shall set the woman before Yahweh, loosen the hair of her head, and put in her hands the grain offering of remembrance — it is the grain offering of jealousy — while the priest holds in his hand the bitter water that brings the curse. 19The priest shall put her under oath and say to the woman, ‘If no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray into impurity while under your husband’s authority, be immune to this bitter water that brings the curse. 20But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority, and have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband has slept with you —’ 21then the priest shall put the woman under this oath of cursing and say to her, ‘May Yahweh make you an object of cursing and swearing among your people, when Yahweh makes your thigh waste away and your belly swell, 22may this water that brings the curse enter your bowels, and make your belly swell and your thigh waste away.’ And the woman shall say, ‘Amen. Amen.’ 23The priest shall write these curses on a scroll and wash them off into the bitter water. 24He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse will enter her and become bitter. 25The priest shall take from the woman’s hand the grain offering of jealousy, wave the offering before Yahweh, and bring it to the altar. 26The priest shall take a handful of the offering as its memorial portion and burn it on the altar; then afterward he shall make the woman drink the water. 27When he has made her drink the water, if she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings the curse will enter her and become bitter; her belly will swell and her thigh will waste away, and the woman will become an object of cursing among her people. 28But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will be free of consequence and will 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 spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he suspects his wife: he shall set the woman before Yahweh, and the priest shall apply to her this entire law. 31The man will be free of guilt, but that woman will bear her guilt.”
