Numbers 5

Numbers 1–4 records the numbering of the tribes of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai, the arrangement of the camp, and the assignment of the Levites' duties. Chapter 5 gathers ordinances for keeping the newly ordered camp clean, and it leads into the Nazirite ordinance of chapter 6.

Outline

• Verses 1–4 God commands that lepers, those with a discharge, and those defiled by a dead body be put out of the camp, both male and female. The children of Israel do as commanded.
• Verses 5–10 Anyone who has sinned against another person is to confess the sin and repay the injured party the amount owed, adding one-fifth. If there is no kinsman to receive it, the payment goes to the priest, besides the ram of atonement. Holy things brought as a heave offering also become the priest's portion.
• Verses 11–15 When there are no witnesses but a husband suspects his wife of adultery, he is to bring her to the priest. He then offers a tenth part of an ephah of barley meal, without oil or frankincense, as an "offering of jealousy."
• Verses 16–26 The priest puts holy water in an earthen vessel and adds dust from the floor of the tabernacle. He has the woman loosen her hair and puts her under oath, and she answers, "Amen, amen." The priest writes the curses in a scroll and washes them off into the water, burns a handful of the grain offering on the altar, and then has the woman drink the water.
• Verses 27–31 If the woman is guilty, her belly swells and her thigh rots; if she is pure, she suffers no harm and conceives. The text calls this the "law of jealousy" and concludes that the husband is guiltless.

Key Verses

• Numbers 5:3 "in the midst whereof I dwell" — Shows that the camp must be kept pure because of God's presence.
• Numbers 5:7 "Then they shall confess their sin which they have done: and he shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof" — Requires both confession of sin and actual restitution. It parallels the restitution ordinance in Leviticus 6:1–7.
• Numbers 5:28 "then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed" — The outcome by which an innocent woman is vindicated.

People and Places

• The LORD — Gives Moses three ordinances.
• Moses — Conveys the ordinances he has received to the children of Israel.
• The priest — Appears unnamed in this chapter. He receives restitution payments and holy things and administers the ritual of the law of jealousy.
• The camp — Israel's encampment in the wilderness of Sinai. Because God dwells in its midst, it must be kept pure.
• The tabernacle — The tent at the center of the camp. In the ritual, dust from its floor is put into the water.

Points for Reflection

• The term rendered "leprosy" in the Korean Revised Version (mundungbyeong) and the New Korean Revised Version (nabyeong) is translated "malignant skin disease" in the New Korean Standard Version. The common view is that the term refers to a broader range of skin diseases than modern Hansen's disease.
• Interpretations of the law of jealousy differ. Some see it as a safeguard that protected the woman from private retaliation based on her husband's one-sided suspicion and left the judgment to God. Others note that no equivalent procedure existed for husbands and see in it the gender imbalance of ancient society. The precise meaning of the expression rendered "her thigh shall rot" (literally, the thigh "falling away") is unclear; interpretations include infertility or miscarriage, among others.
• The Jewish Mishnah contains a tractate, Sotah, that treats this ritual in detail, and it reports that the practice was discontinued toward the end of the Temple period. Such material belongs to tradition outside the biblical text. Nowhere else in the Old Testament is there a record of this ritual actually being performed.
• In the New Testament, Jesus touches and heals a leper (Mark 1:40–42) and heals the woman with an issue of blood. Zacchaeus's promise of restitution (Luke 19:8) is read alongside the principle of restitution in verses 5–7.
• Most Protestants regard the purity ordinances and rituals of this chapter as fulfilled in Christ and do not observe them literally. Reformed traditions, including Presbyterianism, confess in accordance with the Westminster Confession of Faith that the ceremonial law has been abrogated.