Bible Chapter Summary
Numbers 5 Summary
Purity Laws, Restitution, and the Jealousy Ordeal
The LORD instructs Moses to remove from the camp anyone who is leprous, has a bodily discharge, or is defiled by contact with the dead, so that the camp where God dwells remains holy. God then establishes a law requiring those who have sinned against another to confess, make full restitution of the principal, and add a fifth part; if no injured party remains, restitution is made to the LORD through the priest. The chapter closes with an extended ritual—the "law of jealousies"—prescribing a procedure for a husband who suspects his wife of secret infidelity: the priest administers an oath and causes the accused woman to drink "bitter water" mixed with tabernacle dust and the blotted-out curses, with the stated outcome that a guilty woman will suffer physical affliction while an innocent woman will be acquitted and bear children.
Key themes
Key verses
Numbers 5:3
“Both 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.”
Numbers 5:7
“Then 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.”
Numbers 5:18
“And 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:”
Numbers 5:27
“And 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.”
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