Numbers 5

KJV · Chapter 5/36

¹And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

²Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead:

³Both male and female shall ye put out, without the camp shall ye put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell.

⁴And the children of Israel did so, and put them out without the camp: as the Lord spake unto Moses, so did the children of Israel.

⁵And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

⁶Speak unto the children of Israel, When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass against the Lord, and that person be guilty;

⁷Then they shall confess their sin which they have done: and he shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof, and add unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed.

⁸But if the man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompensed unto the Lord, even to the priest; beside the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him.

⁹And every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his.

¹⁰And every man’s hallowed things shall be his: whatsoever any man giveth the priest, it shall be his.

¹¹And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

¹²Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man’s wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him,

¹³And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner;

¹⁴And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled:

¹⁵Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance.

¹⁶And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord:

¹⁷And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water:

¹⁸And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse:

¹⁹And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse:

²⁰But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband:

²¹Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell;

²²And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.

²³And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water:

²⁴And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter.

²⁵Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering before the Lord, and offer it upon the altar:

²⁶And the priest shall take an handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water.

²⁷And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people.

²⁸And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed.

²⁹This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled;

³⁰Or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law.

³¹Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God orders the temporary expulsion of the unclean from the camp, establishes the law of restitution for theft or fraud, and institutes the strange ritual of the 'bitter water' to resolve cases of suspected marital unfaithfulness when there are no witnesses.

Explanation

The ritual for a woman suspected of adultery, though strange to modern eyes, was actually a remarkable legal protection for the woman in the ancient culture: instead of allowing a jealous husband to freely accuse and punish her, the case was handed over to God through a formal, public process, and if she was innocent, she would go free and unblemished. This contrasts with neighboring legal codes of the time, which often gave the husband almost absolute power over a suspected wife. The insistence on keeping the camp free of physical and moral impurity again reflects the central idea of Numbers: God dwells literally in the midst of the people, and that demands a high standard of collective holiness.

Fun facts

There is no biblical or archaeological record that this 'bitter water' ritual was ever actually carried out in Israel's history — many scholars believe it served more as a psychological deterrent and formal process than as a frequent practice.
The principle of restitution with an added fifth (20%) for fraud, repeated here, is the same one already established in Leviticus 6:5, showing the consistency of the Mosaic law across the books.

Verse-by-verse explanation

Numbers 5:1After the chapters on organization and census-taking, the Lord speaks to Moses again, now about rules of purity within the camp.
Numbers 5:2The order is to temporarily remove from the camp anyone with leprosy, any kind of bodily discharge, or anyone who had touched a dead body — the same cases detailed in the next verse.
Numbers 5:3People with leprosy, with certain bodily discharges, or who had touched a corpse were sent outside the camp for a time. This was not a moral punishment but a rule of health and ritual purity: since the camp was seen as the place where God dwelt in the midst of the people, anything associated with disease or death had to stay away until it passed.
Numbers 5:4The people obey without question: whoever fell into these cases was sent outside the camp, exactly as the Lord had determined.
Numbers 5:5Another word from the Lord to Moses, now changing subject to deal with restitution when someone wrongs another person.
Numbers 5:6If a man or woman wronged someone in any way, this was treated also as a breach of trust with God, not just a matter between people.
Numbers 5:7Whoever had wronged another person was to confess and repay the full value of the loss, adding a fifth more on top as extra compensation.
Numbers 5:8If the wronged person had already died without a relative to receive that restitution, the value went to the priest, along with the ram offered for the atonement of guilt.
Numbers 5:9In the same way, any offering of the holy things that the Israelites brought to the priest became his.
Numbers 5:10The general rule was simple: whatever someone voluntarily handed over to the priest as an offering became his.
Numbers 5:11Once more the Lord speaks to Moses, this time introducing a very specific law about suspected unfaithfulness in marriage.
Numbers 5:12The case dealt with next is that of a wife who strayed from her husband, being unfaithful to him.
Numbers 5:13The situation described is one of a betrayal no one witnessed: no witness, no proof, and the woman hiding what happened.
Numbers 5:14Even without proof, it was enough for the husband to be seized by a feeling of jealousy and suspicion, whether or not the wife was guilty, for the process described in the rest of the chapter to begin.
Numbers 5:15When a husband suspected his wife without proof, the law required him to bring her to the priest with a simple offering of barley flour. This offering came without oil or frankincense, the ingredients that normally made an offering pleasant — here it is deliberately plain, because this is not a celebration, but a case of suspicion to be settled.
Numbers 5:16The priest would bring the suspected woman and set her before the Lord, beginning the ritual described in the verses that follow.
Numbers 5:17The priest would prepare the mixture used for the trial: water in a clay vessel, mixed with a little dust from the floor of the tabernacle itself.
Numbers 5:18The priest would mix water with dust from the floor of the tabernacle and have the suspected woman hold the offering while she drank this “bitter water.” The idea was that if she were innocent, nothing would happen, but if she were guilty, the drink would bring visible physical consequences. It is an ancient trial custom for when there was no other way to prove an accusation, and one that shocks us today because it fell only on the woman.
Numbers 5:19Before giving her the drink, the priest would have the woman take an oath: if she were innocent, that bitter water would not harm her at all.
Numbers 5:20But the oath also covered the other side: if she really had been involved with another man, the next verse describes the curse that would fall on her.
Numbers 5:21The priest would then pronounce the formal curse: if guilty, the woman’s body would show visible signs, her belly swollen and her thigh wasted, before all her people.
Numbers 5:22The woman had to answer “Amen, amen” to the curse, formally agreeing to take part in that trial even before drinking the water.
Numbers 5:23The priest would write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water itself, mixing the written curse into the liquid she would drink.
Numbers 5:24Only after all of this was prepared would the woman finally drink the bitter water, which would bring the consequences if she were guilty.
Numbers 5:25Before giving her the water, the priest would also take the flour offering from the woman’s hand, presenting it to the Lord over the altar.
Numbers 5:26The priest would burn a handful of that offering on the altar as a memorial, and only then have the woman drink the water.
Numbers 5:27If the woman really had been involved with another man, the text says the drink would make her belly swell and her thigh waste away — signs understood as public proof of guilt. This ritual existed only for cases where there was no witness or confession; it served as an ancient way of settling an accusation that would otherwise remain unresolved.
Numbers 5:28If the woman were truly innocent, nothing bad happened: she was cleared of the accusation and could still bear children normally.
Numbers 5:29This passage sums up everything already described: this is the law applied when a wife strays and defiles herself with another man.
Numbers 5:30The same law also covered the opposite case: when the husband himself, seized by jealousy, decided to bring his wife to this trial before the priest.
Numbers 5:31In the end, a husband who made the accusation suffered no consequence for it, but the woman, if truly guilty, bore the result alone.

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