Numbers 5–6

Rules Concerning Those Unclean

5Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Command the Israelites:^a they must send everyone from the camp who is afflicted with a rash,^b everyone with a fluid discharge, and everyone unclean through contact with a corpse. ³You will send away both male and female;^c you will send them outside the camp.^d They must not make unclean their camps where I am dwelling in their midst.” ⁴So the Israelites^e did so. They sent them away outside the camp;^f just as Yahweh spoke to Moses, so did the Israelites.^g

Rules of Restitution

⁵Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ⁶“Speak to the Israelites:^h ‘When a man or woman commitsⁱ any of the sins of humankind by acting unfaithfully, it is a sin against Yahweh, and that person will be guilty; ⁷they will confess their sin that they did and will make restitution for their^j guilt by adding a fifth to it^k and giving it to whomever was wronged.^{l 8}But if the man does not have a redeemer to make restitution to him for the reparation, the reparation is to be given to Yahweh for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement by which atonement is made for him. ⁹And every contribution of all the holy objects of the Israelites^m that they bring to the priest for him will be his. ¹⁰The holy objects of a man will be for him;ⁿ whatever he gives to the priest will be for him.’ ”

Rules Concerning an Unfaithful Wife

¹¹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹²“Speak to the Israelites^o and say to them, ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and acts unfaithfully to him, ¹³and a man sleeps with her and ejaculates and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband and she is concealed, although she is defiled, and there is no witness against her and she was not caught, ¹⁴if a spirit of jealousy comes over him, and he is jealous of his wife and she is defiled; or if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife but she is not defiled, ¹⁵he will bring his wife to the priest. And he will bring her offering for her, one-tenth of an ephah of flour. He will not pour oil on it, and he will not put frankincense on it because it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembering,^p a reminding of guilt.

¹⁶“ ‘Then the priest will bring her near and present her before^q Yahweh; ¹⁷the priest will take holy waters in a clay vessel, and from the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle, and the priest will put it into the waters. ¹⁸And the priest will present the woman before^r Yahweh, and he will uncover the head of the woman; he will then put in her hands the grain offering of the remembering—which is the grain offering of jealousy—and in the hand of the priest will be the waters of bitterness that brings a curse. ¹⁹Then the priest will make her swear an oath, and he will say to the woman, “If a man has not slept with you, and if you have not had an impurity affair under your husband, go unpunished from the waters of bitterness that brings this curse. ²⁰But if you have had an affair under your husband, and if you are defiled and a man other than your husband had intercourse with you,” ²¹the priest will make the woman swear an oath of the sworn oath of the curse, the priest will say to the woman, “May Yahweh give you a curse and a sworn oath in the midst of your people with Yahweh making^s your hip fall away^t and your stomach swollen; ²²and these waters that bring a curse will go into your intestines to cause your womb to swell and to make your hip fall away.”^u And the women will say, “Amen. Amen.”

²³“ ‘And the priests will write these curses on the scroll, and he will wipe them off into the waters of the bitterness. ²⁴He will make the woman drink the waters of the bitterness that brings^v a curse, and the waters of bitterness that bring a curse will go into her. ²⁵The priest will take the grain offering of jealousy from the hand of the woman, and he will wave the grain offering before Yahweh,^w and he will present it to the altar; ²⁶the priest will grasp her memorial offering from the grain offering, and he will turn it into smoke on the altar, and afterward he will make the woman drink the waters. ²⁷When he has made her drink the waters, it will come about, if she has defiled herself and acted unfaithfully to her husband and the waters of bitterness that bring a curse go into her and her stomach swells and her hip falls away,^x the woman will be as a curse in the midst of her people. ²⁸And if the woman is not defiled, and she is pure, she will go unpunished and be able to conceive children.

²⁹“ ‘This is the regulation of jealousy, when a woman has an affair under her husband and she is defiled, ³⁰or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife, he will present the woman before Yahweh ,^y​and the priest will do to her all of this law. ³¹The man will go unpunished from guilt, and the woman, she will bear her guilt.’ ”

Rules Concerning Nazirites

6Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the Israelites^a and say to them, ‘When a man or a woman takes a special vow, a vow of a Nazirite,^b to keep separate for Yahweh, ³he will abstain from wine and fermented drink; he will not drink wine vinegar or vinegar of fermented drink; he will not drink the fruit juice of grapes or eat fresh or dry grapes. ⁴All the days of his separation^c you will not eat from anything that is made from the grapevine, from sour grapes to the skin of grapes.

⁵“ ‘All the days of the vow of his separation a razor will not pass over his head. Until fulfilling the days that he separated himself to Yahweh he will be holy and grow long the locks of the hair of his head.

⁶“ ‘All the days of keeping himself separated for Yahweh he will not go to a person who is dead; ⁷for even his father, mother, brother, or sister he will not make himself unclean by their death,^d because the separation to his God is on his head. ⁸He will be holy for Yahweh all the days of his separation.^e

⁹“ ‘If someone dies suddenly and makes the head of his separation^f unclean, he will shave off the hair of his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he will shave it off. ¹⁰On the eighth day he will bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons^g to the priest by the doorway of the tent of assembly, ¹¹and the priest will offer one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering, and he will make atonement for him because he sinned concerning the corpse. He will consecrate his head on that day. ¹²He will rededicate to Yahweh the days of his separation^h and bring a ram-lamb in its first yearⁱ as a guilt offering. The former days of his vow will fall away because his separation was defiled.

¹³“ ‘This is the regulation of the Nazirite for the day of the fulfilling of the days of his separation: one will bring him to the doorway of the tent of the assembly. ¹⁴He will present his offering to Yahweh, one ram-lamb in its first year^j without defect as a burnt offering, and one ewe-lamb in its first year^k without defect as a sin offering, and one ram without defect as a fellowship offering; ¹⁵and a basket of unleavened bread, finely milled flour of ring-shaped bread cakes mixed with oil, and wafers of unleavened bread smeared with oil, and their grain offering and their libations. ¹⁶The priest will present before Yahweh^l and offer his sin offering, his burnt offering; ¹⁷he will offer a ram as a sacrifice of a fellowship offering to Yahweh, in addition to the basket of the unleavened bread; the priest will offer his grain offering and his libation. ¹⁸The Nazirite will shave off the hair of his consecrated head^m at the doorway of the tent of assembly, and he will take the hair of his consecrated head,ⁿ and he will put it on the fire that is beneath the sacrifice of the fellowship offering. ¹⁹The priest will take the shoulder from the ram that is boiled, and one ring-shaped bread cake of unleavened bread from the basket, and one wafer of unleavened bread, and he will put them on the hands of the Nazirite after he has shaved his consecrated head.^{o 20}The priest will wave them as a wave offering before the presence of^p Yahweh; they^q are a holy object to the priest, in addition to the breast section of the wave offering, and in addition to the upper thigh of the contribution; and afterward the Nazirite may drink wine.

²¹“ ‘This is the regulation of the Nazirite who has made a vow of his offering to Yahweh according to his separation, in addition to what he can afford.^r In accordance to the word of his vow that he vowed, he will do, concerning the instruction of his separation.’ ”

The Priestly Blessing

²²Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²³“Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘You will bless the Israelites:^s You will say to them:

²⁴Yahweh will bless you

and keep you;

²⁵Yahweh will make shine his face on you

and be gracious to you;

²⁶Yahweh will lift up his face upon you,

and he will give you peace.’

²⁷And they will put my name on the Israelites,^t and I will bless them.”