Numbers 5:14–31

¹⁴and if feelings of jealousy^q come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure—¹⁵then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah^cr of barley flour^s on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy,^t a reminder-offering^u to draw attention to wrongdoing.

¹⁶“ ‘The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord. ¹⁷Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. ¹⁸After the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair^v and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy,^w while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse.^{x 19}Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray^y and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse^z not harm you. ²⁰But if you have gone astray^a while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”—²¹here the priest is to put the woman under this curse^b—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse^d among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. ²²May this water^c that brings a curse^d enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”

“ ‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.^e”

²³“ ‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll^f and then wash them off into the bitter water. ²⁴He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her. ²⁵The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the Lord^g and bring it to the altar. ²⁶The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial^e offering^h and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. ²⁷If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse.^{i 28}If, however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.

²⁹“ ‘This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray^j and makes herself impure while married to her husband, ³⁰or when feelings of jealousy^k come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the Lord and is to apply this entire law to her. ³¹The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences^l of her sin.’ ”