Numbers 5
Numbers 5:1 Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said,
Numbers 5:2 “Command the sons of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who has skin disease or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with a dead throat.[1]
Numbers 5:3 You will put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, so that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I am living.”
Numbers 5:4 And the sons of Israel did so and put them outside the camp; as Yahveh said to Moses, so the sons of Israel did.
Numbers 5:5 And Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said,
Numbers 5:6 “Speak to the people of Israel, When a man or woman makes fails[2] as Adam failed by betraying Yahveh, and that throat realizes his guilt,
Numbers 5:7 he will confess his failure. And he will make full reparation for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong.
Numbers 5:8 But if the man has no next of kin to whom reparation may be made for the wrong, the reparation for wrong will go to Yahveh for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement with which reconciliation is provided for him.
Numbers 5:9 And every contribution, all the holy donations of the people of Israel, which they bring to the priest, will be his.
Numbers 5:10 Each one will keep his holy donations: whatever anyone gives to the priest will be his.”
Numbers 5:11 And Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said
Numbers 5:12 “Speak to the people of Israel, If any man’s wife goes astray and betrays him,
Numbers 5:13 if a man has sex with her, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her since she was not taken in the act,
Numbers 5:14 and if the breath[3] of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or if the breath of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself, a violation
Numbers 5:15 then the man will bring his wife to the priest and bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He will pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it because it is a tribute offering of jealousy, a tribute offering of remembrance, bringing a violation to remembrance.
Numbers 5:16 “And the priest will bring her near and set her in the sight of Yahveh.
Numbers 5:17 And the priest will take holy water in an earthenware vessel and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water.
Numbers 5:18 And the priest will set the woman in the sight of Yahveh and unbind the hair of the woman’s head and place in her hands the tribute offering of remembrance, which is the tribute offering of jealousy. And in his hand, the priest will have the water of bitterness that brings the curse.
Numbers 5:19 Then the priest will make her take an oath, and this is what he will say ‘If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to contamination beneath your husband, be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse.
Numbers 5:20 But if you have gone astray beneath your husband, and if you have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband has lain with you,
Numbers 5:21 then’ (let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse and say to the woman) ‘Yahveh make you a curse and an oath among your people when Yahveh makes your thigh fall away, and your body swell.
Numbers 5:22 May this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your uterus swell and your thigh fall away.’ And the woman will say, ‘Amen, Amen.’
Numbers 5:23 “Then the priest will write these curses in a book and wash them off into the water of bitterness.
Numbers 5:24 And he will make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse will enter into her and cause bitter pain.
Numbers 5:25 And the priest will take the tribute offering of jealousy out of the woman’s hand and will wave the tribute offering in the sight of Yahveh and bring it to the altar.
Numbers 5:26 And the priest will take a handful of the tribute offering, as its reminiscence,[4] and burn it on the altar, and afterward will make the woman drink the water.
Numbers 5:27 And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has betrayed her husband, the water that brings the curse will enter into her and cause bitter pain. Her uterus will swell, and her thigh will fall away, and the woman will become a curse among her people.
Numbers 5:28 But if the woman has not defiled herself and is pure, then she will be free and can become pregnant with children.
Numbers 5:29 “This is the instruction[5] in cases of jealousy, when a wife beneath her husband goes astray and defiles herself,
Numbers 5:30 or when the breath of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife. Then he will set the woman in the sight of Yahveh, and the priest will carry out for her all this law.
Numbers 5:31 The man will be free from a violation, but the woman will bear her violation.”
[1] נֶפֶשׁ = throat (metonym for person). Numbers 5:2, 6; 6:6, 11; 9:6, 7, 10, 13; 11:6; 15:27, 28, 30, 31; 16:38; 19:11, 13, 18, 20, 22; 21:4; 29:7; 30:2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13; 31:19, 35, 40, 46, 50; 35:11, 15, 30, 31.
[2] חַטָּאת = failure. Numbers 5:6, 7; 6:11, 14, 16; 7:16, 22, 28, 34, 40, 46, 52, 58, 64, 70, 76, 82, 87; 8:8, 12; 12:11; 15:24, 25, 27; 16:26; 18:9; 19:9, 17; 28:15, 22; 29:5, 11, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, 34, 38; 32:23.
[3]רוּחַ = breath. Numbers 5:14, 30; 11:17, 25, 26, 29, 31; 14:24; 16:22; 24:2; 27:16, 18.
[4] אַזְכָּרָה= reminiscence (offering).
[5] תּוֹרָה= instruction. Numbers 5:29, 30; 6:13, 21; 15:16, 29; 19:2, 14; 31:21.
Numbers 5 quotes:
“Over many chapters in the middle of Leviticus, the categories of clean versus unclean have been elaborately defined. Now the Israelites continue their preparation for the march by “purifying” the camp. Clearly it makes no sense to clean swords and boots without also examining the people who are carrying and wearing them.”
Boyce Richard Nelson. Leviticus and Numbers. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 119.
“Before the pilgrims embarked on their onward journey, they were provided with crucial guidelines regarding their spiritual, moral and social responsibilities. Three distinct issues raised in this chapter concern the physical, ethical and spiritual welfare of this desert community and its successive generations. They relate to physical impurities (1-4), moral offences (5-10) and domestic tensions (11-31).”
Brown Raymond. The Message of Numbers : Journey to the Promised Land. InterVarsity Press 2002. p. 41.
“Israel obeyed God when they came out of Egypt; but the land which they entered was infected because of the people who had been there. Therefore, in Numbers 5 Moses taught Israel how to avoid infection. This is also important for us today, because each of us lives in the midst of an evil world. Around us all manner of conditions exist that would cause us to deteriorate by the very nature of the infection that we could receive. What we see, what we hear, and what we are active in all have in them the marks of human depravity. They crowd in upon us; there is no magical way we can avoid these things. Safety depends upon careful attention under the grace of God.”
Gutzke, Manford George. Plain Talk on Leviticus and Numbers. Zondervan Pub. House., 1981. p. 69.
“Just before Israel marched forward, ‘the Lord assigned them some final preparations, including a directions and provision for special commitments.”
Martin, Glen, and Max E. Anders. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Broadman & Holman, 2002. p. 285.
“But if the New Testament upholds the moral side of these uncleanness regulations, it abolished the symbolic physical distinctions. Our Lord healed lepers and the woman with a flow of blood, and raised the dead through his touch (Luke 17:12ff.; 8:40ff.). In these ways he declared that those conditions which for centuries had separated even the elect people of God from God no longer mattered. God has himself drawn nigh. The kingdom of heaven is now open to all who repent and believe the gospel.”
Wenham, Gordon J.. Numbers: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries Book 4) (p. 88). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
Numbers 5 links:
a pure walk
Amen, Amen
Dead souls, dying souls
everything that defiles
foreshadowing unfaithfulness
forgiven and fruitful
introducing the breath of God
making things right
The NUMBERS shelf in Jeff’s library
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