Numbers 5
The full text of Numbers 5 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 The LORD said to Moses,
2 "Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has a defiling skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is unclean through contact with a dead body.
3 Send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile the camp, where I dwell among them."
4 The Israelites did so; they sent them outside the camp. They did just as the LORD had instructed Moses.
5 The LORD said to Moses,
6 "Tell the Israelites: When a man or woman wrongs another in any way and so is unfaithful to the LORD, that person is guilty.
7 They must confess the sin they have committed. They must make full restitution for the wrong they have done, add a fifth of its value to it, and give it all to the person they have wronged.
8 But if that person has no close relative to whom restitution can be made, the restitution belongs to the LORD and is to be given to the priest, along with the ram with which atonement is made for the wrongdoer.
9 All the sacred contributions the Israelites bring to a priest belong to him.
10 Each person's sacred gifts are their own, but what they give to the priest belongs to the priest."
11 Then the LORD said to Moses,
12 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: Suppose a man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him,
13 so that another man sleeps with her, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she was not caught in the act),
14 and a spirit of jealousy comes over the husband and he suspects his wife and she has in fact made herself impure—or a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he suspects her though she has not made herself impure—
15 then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also bring on her behalf an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He is not to pour oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder offering to call attention to wrongdoing.
16 The priest is to bring her forward and have her stand before the LORD.
17 Then he is to take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water.
18 After the priest has had the woman stand before the LORD, he is to loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse.
19 Then the priest is to put her under oath and say to her, "If no other man has slept with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while under your husband's authority, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you.
20 But if you have gone astray while under your husband's authority and have made yourself impure by sleeping with a man other than your husband"—
21 here the priest is to have the woman swear the oath of the curse—"may the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people when he makes your thigh waste away and your abdomen swell.
22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells and your thigh wastes away." Then the woman is to say, "Amen. Amen."
23 The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water.
24 He is to have the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water will enter her and cause bitter suffering.
25 The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the LORD, and bring it to the altar.
26 Then he 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.
27 When he has made her drink the water, then if she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings a curse will enter her and cause bitter suffering; her abdomen will swell and her thigh will waste away, and she will become a curse among her people.
28 But if the woman has not made herself impure and is innocent, she will be cleared and will be able to have children.
29 This, then, is the law of jealousy, for when a wife goes astray and makes herself impure while under her husband's authority,
30 or for when a spirit of jealousy comes over a husband and he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the LORD and carry out this entire law on her.
31 The husband will be free from blame, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin.
Translation notes (14)
- Numbers 5:2a "Defiling skin disease" translates the Hebrew tsara'at, which refers to a range of skin and surface conditions that caused ritual defilement, not modern leprosy (Hansen's disease); it is translated consistently throughout.
- Numbers 5:12a This verse begins the ordeal of the suspected wife (Numbers 5:12-31). The Hebrew words tisteh ('go astray' or 'turn aside') and ma'al ('act treacherously' or 'be unfaithful') are translated plainly; the law's difference in treatment based on gender is preserved, neither softened nor sharpened. The full passage and its contested points are noted for further review.
- Numbers 5:13a The Hebrew shikhvat-zera' ('a lying of seed') refers to sexual intercourse and is translated plainly. The word nitma'ah means 'she is defiled' or 'made impure' in the ritual sense; this term is kept and not given a moral meaning beyond what the text states.
- Numbers 5:14a The Hebrew ruach qin'ah, meaning "a spirit of jealousy" or "zeal," is translated as a recurring inner state, without deciding if it is divine or merely human. The verse intentionally describes both the case of a guilty wife and an innocent wife, which the translation preserves.
- Numbers 5:15a The Hebrew minchat qena'ot means "grain offering of jealousy," and minchat zikkaron mazkeret 'avon means "a memorial offering that brings iniquity to remembrance." These terms are translated plainly and not softened.
- Numbers 5:18a The Hebrew para' et-rosh means "loosen" or "uncover her hair," which was a ritual act of disordering, not a moral judgment. The phrase mei ha-marim ha-me'arerim means "the bitter water that brings a curse"; both of these debated phrases are translated plainly and not given a definitive interpretation here.
- Numbers 5:19a The Hebrew tachat ishekh, meaning "under your husband" (that is, while married to him), is translated as "under your husband's authority" for clarity. This is a debated phrase that is noted but not definitively interpreted.
- Numbers 5:20a This verse continues the priest's oath, stating the conditions for the guilty case. It is translated plainly; tachat ishekh is used here as in verse 19, and it is noted but not definitively interpreted.
- Numbers 5:21a The Hebrew yerekh nofelet u-veten tsavah means "thigh waste away and abdomen swell." The exact physical effect (which could be a reproductive consequence or an idiom for miscarriage) is genuinely uncertain in the Hebrew text and is left unresolved here, translated literally.
- Numbers 5:22a The woman's repeated "Amen, Amen" confirms the oath that calls a curse upon herself. The physical language used here matches that in verse 21; it is left literal and unresolved.
- Numbers 5:24a The Hebrew l'marim means "into" or "for bitterness." The text does not specify whether this bitterness is physical, judicial, or both, and the translation leaves it open.
- Numbers 5:27a This verse describes the outcome for the guilty case; the debated physical language matches that in verses 21-22 and is translated literally, not definitively interpreted.
- Numbers 5:28a The Hebrew v'nizre'ah zara' literally means "she will be sown with seed," and is translated as "able to have children." The vindication of the innocent wife is preserved as the clear opposite outcome to the guilty case.
- Numbers 5:31a This verse plainly renders the Hebrew text, which states an asymmetry: the man is cleared of 'avon (iniquity), while the woman bears her 'avon. The text is left exactly as it is, neither softened nor sharpened.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own modern English translation, worked directly from the original Hebrew and honest to the earliest manuscripts. It was completed in 2026 — the most modern English Bible translation — and is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter, including all of Numbers, is free to read here on the web.
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