Numbers 5–6

Ceremonially Unclean Persons Isolated

5And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²“Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every ^aleper, everyone who has a ^bdischarge, and whoever becomes ^cdefiled ¹by a corpse. ³You shall put out both male and female; you shall put them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camps ^din the midst of which I dwell.” ⁴And the children of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp; as the Lord spoke to Moses, so the children of Israel did.

Confession and Restitution

⁵Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁶“Speak to the children of Israel: ^e‘When a man or woman commits any sin that men commit in unfaithfulness against the Lord, and that person is guilty, ^7fthen he shall confess the sin which he has committed. He shall make restitution for his trespass ^gin full, plus one-fifth of it, and give it to the one he has wronged. ⁸But if the man has no ²relative to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution for the wrong must go to the Lord for the priest, in addition to ^hthe ram of the atonement with which atonement is made for him. ⁹Every ⁱoffering ³of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring to the priest, shall be ^jhis. ¹⁰And every man’s ⁴holy things shall be his; whatever any man gives the priest shall be ^khis.’ ”

Concerning Unfaithful Wives

¹¹And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹²“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and behaves unfaithfully toward him, ¹³and a man ^llies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and it is concealed that she has defiled herself, and there was no witness against her, nor was she ^mcaught—¹⁴if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes ⁿjealous of his wife, who has defiled herself; or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, although she has not defiled herself—¹⁵then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. He shall ^obring the offering required for her, one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of jealousy, an offering for remembering, for ^pbringing iniquity to remembrance.

¹⁶‘And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord. ¹⁷The priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. ¹⁸Then the priest shall stand the woman before the ^qLord, uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse. ¹⁹And the priest shall put her under oath, and say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray to uncleanness while under your husband’s authority, be free from this bitter water that brings a curse. ²⁰But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has lain with you”—²¹then the priest shall ^rput the woman under the oath of the curse, and he shall say to the woman—^s“the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh ⁵rot and your belly swell; ²²and may this water that causes the curse ^tgo into your stomach, and make your belly swell and your thigh rot.”

^u‘Then the woman shall say, “Amen, so be it.”

²³‘Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall scrape them off into the bitter water. ²⁴And he shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter her to become bitter. ^25vThen the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, shall ^wwave the offering before the Lord, and bring it to the altar; ²⁶and the priest shall take a handful of the offering, ^xas its memorial portion, burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water. ²⁷When he has made her drink the water, then it shall be, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, that the water that brings a ^ycurse will enter her and become bitter, and her belly will swell, her thigh will rot, and the woman ^zwill become a curse among her people. ²⁸But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she shall be free and may conceive children.

²⁹‘This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, while under her husband’s authority, ^agoes astray and defiles herself, ³⁰or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man, and he becomes jealous of his wife; then he shall stand the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute all this law upon her. ³¹Then the man shall be free from ⁶iniquity, but that woman ^bshall bear her ⁷guilt.’ ”

The Law of the Nazirite

6Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When either a man or woman ¹consecrates an offering to take the vow of a Nazirite, ^ato separate himself to the Lord, ^3bhe shall separate himself from wine and similar drink; he shall drink neither vinegar made from wine nor vinegar made from similar drink; neither shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. ⁴All the days of his ²separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, from seed to skin.

⁵‘All the days of the vow of his separation no ^crazor shall come upon his head; until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. Then he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. ⁶All the days that he separates himself to the Lord ^dhe shall not go near a dead body. ^7eHe shall not ³make himself unclean even for his father or his mother, for his brother or his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head. ^8fAll the days of his separation he shall be holy to the Lord.

⁹‘And if anyone dies very suddenly beside him, and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall ^gshave his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it. ¹⁰Then ^hon the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting; ¹¹and the priest shall offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned in regard to the corpse; and he shall sanctify his head that same day. ¹²He shall consecrate to the Lord the days of his separation, and bring a male lamb in its first year ⁱas a trespass offering; but the former days shall be ⁴lost, because his separation was defiled.

¹³‘Now this is the law of the Nazirite: ^jWhen the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall be brought to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. ¹⁴And he shall present his offering to the Lord: one male lamb in its first year without blemish as a burnt offering, one ewe lamb in its first year without blemish ^kas a sin offering, one ram without blemish ^las a peace offering, ¹⁵a basket of unleavened bread, ^mcakes of fine flour mixed with oil, unleavened wafers ⁿanointed with oil, and their grain offering with their ^odrink offerings.

¹⁶‘Then the priest shall bring them before the Lord and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering; ¹⁷and he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread; the priest shall also offer its grain offering and its drink offering. ^18pThen the Nazirite shall shave his consecrated head at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offering.

¹⁹‘And the priest shall take the ^qboiled shoulder of the ram, one ^runleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and ^sput them upon the hands of the Nazirite after he has shaved his consecrated hair, ²⁰and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord; ^tthey are holy for the priest, together with the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering. After that the Nazirite may drink wine.’

²¹“This is the law of the Nazirite who vows to the Lord the offering for his separation, and besides that, whatever else his hand is able to provide; according to the vow which he takes, so he must do according to the law of his separation.”

The Priestly Blessing

²²And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²³“Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them:

²⁴“The Lord ^ubless you and ^vkeep you;

²⁵The Lord ^wmake His face shine upon you,

And ^xbe gracious to you;

^26yThe Lord ⁵lift up His countenance upon you,

And ^zgive you peace.” ’

^27a“So they shall ⁶put My name on the children of Israel, and ^bI will bless them.”