Various laws
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and said:
2 ¡°Order the Israelites to put out of the camp all lepers, and all who
suffer from a con tagious infection, or who have become unclean by touching
a corpse.
3 Man or woman, you must put them out and forbid them to return to the camp.
The Israelites must not allow the camp where I dwell among them to become
unclean in this way.¡±
4 The Israelites did so: they put them out of the camp. The Israelites did
as Yahweh had commanded Moses.
5 Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,
6 ¡°Tell the people of Israel:
If anyone commits a fault against another person, and thus is unfaithful to
Yahweh,
7 that person must confess the sin committed and give back in full the
amount which was taken plus 20% more. Payment is to be made to the person
who was wronged.
8 If, however, that person has died and there is no near relative to whom
the ill-gotten goods can be returned, this payment owed to Yahweh shall be
given to the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement with which the
priest makes atonement for the guilty person.
9 For of everything consecrated by Israelites and brought to the priest he
has a right to the share set aside.
10 Whatever a person consecrates is his own; whatever is given to the priest
belongs to the priest.¡±
11 Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,
12 ¡°Say this to the people of Israel:
If anyone has a wife who goes astray and is unfaithful to him,
13 sleeping with some other man without the husband¡¯s knowledge, and she
disgraces herself in secret in this way, without any witness against her,
and without anyone catching her in the act;
14 then, perhaps the spirit of jealousy will come over the husband and make
him jealous for the wife who has disgraced herself. But perhaps the spirit
of jealousy comes upon the husband, and makes him jealous of his wife even
though she is innocent.
15 In these cases the man must bring his wife before the priest, and on her
behalf make an offering of two pounds of barley flour. He is not to pour oil
on it or put incense on it, because this is an ¡®offering for jealousy,¡¯ a
memorial offering to record a fault.
16 The priest is then to bring the wo man forward and stand her before Yah
weh.
17 Then he shall take living water in an earthen jar, and on the water throw
dust that he has taken from the floor of the Holy Tent.
18 After he has placed the woman before Yahweh, he shall loosen her hair and
put in her hands the commemorative offering (that is, the offering for
jealousy). In his own hands the priest will hold the bowl containing bitter
water that brings a curse.
19 He is then to make the woman agree to an oath. He shall say to her: If it
is not true that a man has slept with you, that you have gone astray and
disgraced yourself while under your husband¡¯s authority, then may this water
of bitterness and cursing do you no harm.
20 But if it is true that you have gone astray, and have disgraced yourself
by sharing your bed with a man other than your husband,
21 may Yahweh make of you an example and a curse among your people, making
your breast shrink and your stomach swell!
22 May this water of cursing enter your body to swell your stomach and to
shrink your breast! The woman must answer: Amen! Amen!
23 Then the priest shall write these curses down and wash them off in the
bowl of bitter water.
24 He must make the woman drink this water of bitterness and of cursing, and
this water of cursing shall go into her and be bitter inside her.
25 The priest shall then take the offering for jealousy from the woman¡¯s
hands, and hold it up before Yahweh with a gesture of offering, and so carry
it up to the altar. 26 He shall take a handful of the flour as a memorial,
and burn it on the altar.
26 He shall then make the woman drink the water.
27 After he has made her drink it, if it is true that she has disgraced
herself, deceiving her husband, then the water of cursing that goes into her
shall indeed be bitter: her belly will swell and her breast shrink, and she
will be a curse among her people.
28 But if she has not disgraced herself and is clean, then she will go
unharmed and will bear children.
29 This is the law in cases of jealousy, when a woman has gone astray and
disgraced her self while under her husband¡¯s authority,
30 or when a spirit of jealousy has come over a man and made him jealous for
his wife. When a husband brings such a woman before Yahweh, the priest must
apply this law to her in full.
31 The husband shall be guiltless, but the woman must bear the punishment
for her sin.¡±