Numbers 5:1-4

Rules Concerning Those Unclean

1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

2 "Command the {Israelites}: they must send everyone from the camp who is afflicted with a rash, everyone with a fluid discharge, and everyone unclean through [contact with] a corpse.

3 You will send away {both male and female}; you will send them {outside the camp}. They must not make unclean their camps where I [am] dwelling in their midst."

4 So the {Israelites} did so. They sent them away {outside the camp}; just as Yahweh spoke to Moses, so did the {Israelites}.

Numbers 5:1-4 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

• [a]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
• [b]. The precise meaning is uncertain; many modern translations suggest "leprosy"
• [c]. Literally "from male until female"
• [d]. Literally "to an outside place of the camp"
• [e]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
• [f]. Literally "to an outside place of the camp"
• [g]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"