New American Standard Bible 1995

Numbers 5:18-27

18The priest shall then have the woman stand before the Lord and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose, and place the grain offering of memorial 1in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy, and in the hand of the priest is to be the water of bitterness that brings a curse. 19The priest shall have her take an oath and shall say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you and if you have not 2gone astray into uncleanness, being under the authority of your husband, be 3immune to this water of bitterness that brings a curse; 20if you, however, have 4gone astray, being under the authority of your husband, and if you have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband has had intercourse with you” 21(then the priest shall have the woman 5swear with the oath of the curse, and the priest shall say to the woman), “the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people by the Lord’s making your thigh 6waste away and your abdomen swell; 22and this water that brings a curse shall go into your 7stomach, and make your abdomen swell and your thigh 8waste away.” And the woman 9shall say, “Amen. Amen.”

23‘The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall 10wash them off into the water of bitterness. 24Then he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings a curse, so that the water which brings a curse will go into her 11and cause bitterness. 25The priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, and he shall wave the grain offering before the Lord and bring it to the altar; 26and 12the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial offering and offer it up in smoke on the altar, and afterward he shall make the woman drink the water. 27When he has made her drink the water, then it shall come about, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, that the water which brings a curse will go into her 13and cause bitterness, and her abdomen will swell and her thigh will 14waste away, and the woman will become 15a curse among her people.

Read all of Numbers 5

Notes

1. Numbers 5:18 Lit on her palms ↩
2. Numbers 5:19 Num 5:12 ↩
3. Numbers 5:19 Lit free from ↩
4. Numbers 5:20 Num 5:12 ↩
5. Numbers 5:21 Josh 6:26; 1 Sam 14:24; Neh 10:29 ↩
6. Numbers 5:21 Lit fall ↩
7. Numbers 5:22 Or inward parts ↩
8. Numbers 5:22 Lit fall ↩
9. Numbers 5:22 Deut 27:15 ↩
10. Numbers 5:23 Lit wipe ↩
11. Numbers 5:24 Lit to ↩
12. Numbers 5:26 Lev 2:2, 9 ↩
13. Numbers 5:27 Lit to ↩
14. Numbers 5:27 Lit fall ↩
15. Numbers 5:27 Jer 29:18; 42:18; 44:12 ↩

Notes

Commentaries on Numbers 5