Numbers 5:7-17

7 The person is to confess the sin he has committed. He is to pay full compensation, add a fifth of its value to it, and give [it] to the individual he has wronged.[a]
8 But if that individual has no relative[b] to receive compensation,[c] the compensation goes to the Lord for the priest, along with the atonement ram by which the priest will make atonement for the [guilty] person.[d]
9 Every holy contribution the Israelites present to the priest will be his.[e]
10 Each one's holy contribution is his [to give]; what each one gives to the priest will be his."

The Jealousy Ritual

11 The Lord spoke to Moses:
12 "Speak to the Israelites and tell them: If any man's wife goes astray, is unfaithful to him,
13 and sleeps with another,[f] but it is concealed from her husband, and she is undetected, even though she has defiled herself, since there is no witness against her, and she wasn't caught [in the act];
14 and if a feeling of jealousy comes over the husband and he becomes jealous because of his wife who has defiled herself-or if a feeling of jealousy comes over him and he becomes jealous of her though she has not defiled herself-
15 then the man is to bring his wife to the priest. He is also to bring an offering for her of two quarts[g] of barley flour. He is not to pour oil over it or put frankincense on it because it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering for remembrance that brings sin to mind.
16 "The priest is to bring her forward and have her stand before the Lord.
17 Then the priest is to take holy water in a clay bowl, and take some of the dust from the tabernacle floor and put [it] in the water.

Numbers 5:7-17 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 5

This chapter contains a repetition of some former laws, concerning putting unclean persons out of the camp, Nu 5:1-4; making restitution in case of trespass against another, Nu 5:5-8; and of giving the offering of all holy things and all hallowed things to the priests, Nu 5:9,10; and a new law concerning jealousy, in a man, of his wife, Nu 5:11-14; when she was to be brought to the priest, and various rites and ceremonies to be used, Nu 5:15-23; who was to give her bitter water as a trial of her chastity, which, if guilty, would have a strange effect upon her, and make her accursed, but if not, would not affect her, and she would be free and happy, Nu 5:24-31.

Footnotes 7

  • [a]. Lv 6:1-5
  • [b]. Lv 25:25,48-49; Jr 32:7
  • [c]. In the case of the individual's death
  • [d]. Lv 6:6-7
  • [e]. Ex 25:2-3; 29:27-28; Lv 7:14,32,34
  • [f]. Lit and man lies with her [and has] an emission of semen
  • [g]. Lit a tenth of an ephah
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