Numbers · 31 verses
Numbers 5
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
A priest writes a curse on a scroll, washes it into bitter water, and has the woman drink the very words meant to judge her.
Outside the campvv. 1–4
The LORD tells Moses to send outside the camp anyone with a skin disease, a bodily discharge, or defilement from a dead body. Male and female alike are sent away, because the LORD dwells among the people there. Israel carries out the instruction exactly, which is brisk work for a matter involving the whole camp.
When restitution has nowhere to govv. 5–10
A person who sins against another must confess, repay the full amount, and add a fifth. If there is no relative to receive the repayment, it goes to the LORD through the priest, along with the ram of atonement. Sacred gifts have a wonderfully firm destination: what is given to the priest belongs to the priest.
The bitter watervv. 11–31
The ordeal begins when a husband suspects his wife, whether she has actually been unfaithful or whether suspicion has arrived with no witness and no caught act. The priest brings her before the LORD, places dust from the tabernacle floor into holy water, and puts the grain offering into her hands. Then comes the astonishing piece of clerical chemistry: he writes the curses on a scroll, washes them into the water, and has her drink it. If she is guilty, the water brings bitter suffering in bodily terms; if she is clean, she is unaffected and able to conceive children. The husband, meanwhile, is declared free from guilt, while the woman bears her iniquity.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Num 5:2“Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.
Num 5:3You must send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.”
Num 5:4So the Israelites did this, sending such people outside the camp. They did just as the LORD had instructed Moses.
Num 5:6“Tell the Israelites that when a man or woman acts unfaithfully against the LORD by committing any sin against another, that person is guilty
Num 5:7and must confess the sin he has committed. He must make full restitution, add a fifth to its value, and give all this to the one he has wronged.
Num 5:8But if the man has no relative to whom restitution can be made for the wrong, the restitution belongs to the LORD and must be given to the priest along with the ram of atonement, by which the atonement is made for him.
Num 5:9Every sacred contribution the Israelites bring to the priest shall belong to him.
Num 5:10Each man’s sacred gifts are his own, but whatever he gives to the priest will belong to the priest.”
Num 5:12“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him
Num 5:13by sleeping with another man, and it is concealed from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she was not caught in the act),
Num 5:14and if a feeling of jealousy comes over her husband and he suspects his wife who has defiled herself—or if a feeling of jealousy comes over him and he suspects her even though she has not defiled herself—
Num 5:15then he is to bring his wife to the priest. He must also bring for her an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He is not to pour oil over it or put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, an offering of memorial as a reminder of iniquity.
Num 5:16The priest is to bring the wife forward and have her stand before the LORD.
Num 5:17Then he is to take some holy water in a clay jar and put some of the dust from the tabernacle floor into the water.
Num 5:18After the priest has the woman stand before the LORD, he is to let down her hair and place in her hands the grain offering of memorial, which is the grain offering for jealousy. The priest is to hold the bitter water that brings a curse.
Num 5:19And he is to put the woman under oath and say to her, ‘If no other man has slept with you and you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband’s authority, may you be immune to this bitter water that brings a curse.
Num 5:20But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority and have defiled yourself and lain carnally with a man other than your husband’—
Num 5:21and the priest shall have the woman swear under the oath of the curse—‘then may the LORD make you an attested curse among your people by making your thigh shrivel and your belly swell.
Num 5:22May this water that brings a curse enter your stomach and cause your belly to swell and your thigh to shrivel.’ Then the woman is to say, ‘Amen, Amen.’
Num 5:23And the priest shall write these curses on a scroll and wash them off into the bitter water.
Num 5:24He is to have the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and it will enter her and may cause her bitter suffering.
Num 5:25The priest shall take from her hand the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the LORD, and bring it to the altar.
Num 5:26Then the priest is to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial portion and burn it on the altar; after that he is to have the woman drink the water.
Num 5:27When he has made her drink the water, if she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, then the water that brings a curse will enter her and cause bitter suffering; her belly will swell, her thigh will shrivel, and she will become accursed among her people.
Num 5:28But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will be unaffected and able to conceive children.
Num 5:29This is the law of jealousy when a wife goes astray and defiles herself while under her husband’s authority,
Num 5:30or when a feeling of jealousy comes over a husband and he suspects his wife. He is to have the woman stand before the LORD, and the priest is to apply to her this entire law.
Num 5:31The husband will be free from guilt, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 184 passages were voted onto 26 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 7Leviticus 5:5If someone incurs guilt in one of these ways, he must confess the sin he has committed,
- 13Leviticus 18:20You must not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife and thus defile yourself with her.
- 7Joshua 7:19So Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and make a confession to Him. I urge you to tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me.”
- 7Leviticus 26:40But if they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me—
- 14Proverbs 6:34For jealousy enrages a husband, and he will show no mercy in the day of vengeance.
- 14Song of Songs 8:6Set me as a seal over your heart, as a seal upon your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as unrelenting as Sheol. Its sparks are fiery flames, the fiercest blaze of all.
- 2Leviticus 13:46As long as he has the infection, he remains unclean. He must live alone in a place outside the camp.
- 2Leviticus 21:1Then the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to Aaron’s sons, the priests, and tell them that a priest is not to defile himself for a dead person among his people,
- 3Deuteronomy 23:14For the LORD your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, lest He see anything unclean among you and turn away from you.
- 6Leviticus 5:1–4“If someone sins by failing to testify when he hears a public charge about something he has witnessed, whether he has seen it or learned of it, he shall bear the iniquity.
- 8Leviticus 6:6–7Then he must bring to the priest his guilt offering to the LORD: an unblemished ram of proper value from the flock.
- 13Leviticus 20:10If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.
- 15Ezekiel 29:16Egypt will never again be an object of trust for the house of Israel, but will remind them of their iniquity in turning to the Egyptians. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD.”
- 21Joshua 6:26At that time Joshua invoked this solemn oath: “Cursed before the LORD is the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho; at the cost of his firstborn he will lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates.”
- 21Nehemiah 10:29hereby join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the Law of God given through His servant Moses and to obey carefully all the commandments, ordinances, and statutes of the LORD our Lord.
- 211 Samuel 14:24Now the men of Israel were in distress that day, for Saul had placed the troops under an oath, saying, “Cursed is the man who eats any food before evening, before I have taken vengeance on my enemies.” So none of the troops tasted any food.
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