Numbers 5

All 31 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.

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1. 1The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
2. 2Command the Israelites to send out of the camp every leper, everyone with a discharge, and anyone defiled by contact with the dead.
3. 3Send them all outside the camp — both men and women — so they don't make the camp unclean, because I live among them."
4. 4The Israelites obeyed. They sent these people outside the camp, exactly as the LORD had told Moses.
5. 5The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
6. 6"Tell the Israelites: When a man or woman wrongs another person in any way, that person has sinned against the LORD and is guilty.
7. 7They must confess the sin they committed, then pay back the full amount they owe plus an additional 5th of its value, giving it to the person they wronged.
8. 8But if that person has died and has no relative to receive the payment, the restitution belongs to the LORD and goes to the priest — in addition to the ram of atonement, through which atonement is made for the guilty person.
9. 9Every sacred offering that the Israelites bring to the priest will belong to him.
10. 10Each person's sacred gifts are their own to give, but whatever someone gives to the priest becomes the priest's."
11. 11The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
12. 12"Tell the Israelites: Suppose a man's wife turns unfaithful and sins against him.
13. 13Another man sleeps with her, but it's kept secret from her husband. She has been defiled, yet there are no witnesses and she wasn't caught in the act.
14. 14If a spirit of jealousy comes over the husband and he suspects his wife — whether she has actually been unfaithful or not —
15. 15Then the man shall bring his wife to the priest and bring her offering for her: 1/10 of an ephah of barley meal. He shall not pour oil on it or put frankincense on it, for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance.
16. 16The priest will bring the woman forward and have her stand before the LORD.
17. 17Then the priest will take holy water in a clay jar and mix in some dust from the floor of the tabernacle.
18. 18The priest will have the woman stand before the LORD, let her hair hang loose, and place the memorial offering — the jealousy offering — in her hands. The priest himself will hold the bitter water that brings a curse.
19. 19Then the priest will put her under oath and say to her, "If no man has slept with you, and if you have not been unfaithful to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse do you no harm.
20. 20But if you have been unfaithful to your husband and have let another man sleep with you —"
21. 21At this point the priest will put the woman under a sworn curse, saying to her, "May the LORD make you an example of cursing among your people. May the LORD cause your thigh to waste away and your abdomen to swell.
22. 22May this water that brings a curse enter your body, making your abdomen swell and your thigh waste away." The woman must respond, "Amen, amen."
23. 23The priest will write these curses on a scroll and then wash the words off into the bitter water.
24. 24He will make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water will enter her body and turn bitter inside her.
25. 25The priest will take the jealousy offering from the woman's hands, wave it before the LORD, and bring it to the altar.
26. 26The priest will take a handful of the offering as the memorial portion and burn it on the altar. After that, he will have the woman drink the water.
27. 27Once she drinks the water, if she has been unfaithful and sinned against her husband, the curse-bringing water will enter her and turn bitter — her abdomen will swell and her thigh will waste away. She will become an example of cursing among her people.
28. 28But if the woman has not been unfaithful and is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to become pregnant.
29. 29This is the law for cases of jealousy — when a wife has been unfaithful to her husband and has been defiled,
30. 30or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a husband and he suspects his wife. He must bring her before the LORD, and the priest must carry out this entire procedure.
31. 31The husband will be free from guilt, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin."