FRAMEWORKS:
Numbers
5: Working for a Pure Camp
Part
1.3: A Holy Camp
Ch.5:
Working for
a Pure Camp
Ch.
6: Nazarites
Ch.7:
Offerings at the Dedication of the Tabernacle
Ch.
8: Setting
Apart the Levites
Ch.
9: Passover
& Presence
FRAMEWORKS:
Numbers
5: Working for a Pure Camp
v.1-4
The Purity of the Camp
v.5-10
Restitution for Wrongs
v.11-31The
Test for an Unfaithful Wife
v.1-4
The Purity of the Camp
v.1
The
Lord said to Moses,
v.2
“Command
the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has a defiling
skin disease [The Hebrew word
for defiling skin disease, traditionally translated “leprosy,”
was used for various diseases affecting the skin] or
a discharge of any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean because
of a dead body.
v.3
Send
away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they
will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.”
v.4
The
Israelites did so; they sent them outside the camp. They did just
as the Lord had instructed Moses.
[Notes:
The rules in this chapter tend towards trying to maintain
a clean, pure, and holy community. These fairly general reminders,
are covered in detail in Lev 13-15]
v.5-10
Restitution for Wrongs
v.5
The
Lord said to Moses,
v.6
“Say
to the Israelites: ‘Any man or woman who wrongs another
in any way and so is unfaithful to the Lord
is guilty
v.7
and
must confess the sin they have committed. They
must make full restitution for the wrong they
have done, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the
person they have wronged.
v.8
But
if that person has no close 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 with which atonement
is made for the wrongdoer.
v.9
All
the sacred contributions the Israelites bring to a priest will
belong to him.
v.10
Sacred
things belong to their owners, but what they give to the priest
will belong to the priest.'”
[Notes:
The general principles in respect of wrongs done are
obviously a) acknowledging a wrong done to another, b) recognising
it is also a wrong against God that c) must be confessed and d)
as appropriate, restitution made.]
v.11-31
The Test for an Unfaithful Wife
v.11
Then
the Lord said to Moses,
v.12
an acknowledged relational wrong in the community
v.12
“Speak
to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man's wife goes astray
and is unfaithful to him
v.13
suspected adultery seen as contaminating the holy community
v.13
so
that another man has sexual relations with her, and this is hidden
from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since
there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in
the act),
v.14
a problem that stirs up possible jealousy
v.14
and
if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects
his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her
even though she is not impure—
v.15
she goes before the priest with an offering
v.15
then he is
to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering
of a tenth of an ephah [That is,
probably about 3.5 pounds [1.6k] of
barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or
put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for
jealousy , a reminder-offering to draw attention
to wrongdoing.
v.16
She is to stand before the Lord, i.e. an added risky seriousness!
v.16
“‘The
priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord .
v.17,18
Phase 1: Dirty water would simply be a token act – the following
curse is the issue
v.17
Then
he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust
from the tabernacle floor into the water.
v.18
After
the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord , he shall
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.
v.19
A curse can involve protection where there is no cause for it
v.19
Then
the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If
no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not
gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may
this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you.
v.20-22
Yet if there is guilt then the curse is operative
v.20
But
if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you
have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man
other than your husband”—
v.21
here
the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the Lord
cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your
womb miscarry and your abdomen swell.
v.22
May
this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen
swells or your womb miscarries.” “‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen.
So be it.”
v.23,24
Phase 2: Further picture actions to emphasise the reality of a
curse
v.23
“‘The
priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them
off into the bitter water.
v.24
He
shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse,
and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering
will enter her.
v.25,26
Phase 3: Further picture actions to emphasise the reality of a
curse
v.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.
v.26
The
priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial
offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the
woman drink the water.
v.27,28
Standing Guilty or Innocent before God believes God will act accordingly
v.27
If
she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband,
this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that
brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her,
her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will
become a curse.
v.28
If,
however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean,
she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.
v.29-31
Summary
v.29
“‘This,
then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray and makes
herself impure while married to her husband,
v.30
or
when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects
his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the Lord and
is to apply this entire law to her.
v.31
The
husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will
bear the consequences of her sin.'”
[Notes:
The activities involved in this procedure is not so
superstitious or remnant of ancient witchcraft as one might think.
Four things should be observed:
i)
standing before the Lord before the Tabernacle, and seeking to
be deceitful, was a decidedly risky business when you consider
the judgements that God has already brought on miscreants.
ii)
we may not understand a curse but it is a prophetic declaration
of bad on a guilty person which, in the Law, [see Deuteronomy]
brings the act of God on the transgressor.
iii)
the threefold acts involving drinking were, in themselves, unlikely
to cause harm, yet in the present location and circumstances,
the conscience of a guilty party would be likely to stir up such
distress that sickness may well occur. There is, therefore, a
twofold possibility of sickness occurring – God acting through
the curse, stress occurring through a guilty conscience.
iv)
however else we may view this procedure, its presence in the Law
should act as a deterrent. In the light of casual relationships
in the twenty-first century in the West, this may appear quaint,
but no doubt helped create more stable family relationships and
a more stable community. Different laws apply where adulterers
are caught.]