# Numbers 05 📖: Purity in the Camp [[📚 Explore the Bible Books]] [[-Numbers Overview]] | [[Numbers 04]] | [[Numbers 06]] > [!info] Table of Contents > [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]] > [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]] > [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]] > [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]] > [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]] > [[#🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application]] > [[#💬 Discussion Questions]] > [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]] > [[#🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference]] > [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]] > [[#📂 Internal Notes]] ## 📜 Scripture Text (NET) (The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005) ### Separation of the Unclean [[#Verse 01.]] Then the Lord spoke to Moses:  [[#Verse 02.]] “Command the Israelites to expel from the camp every leper, everyone who has a discharge, and whoever becomes defiled by a corpse.  [[#Verse 03.]] You must expel both men and women; you must put them outside the camp, so that they will not defile their camps, among which I live.”  [[#Verse 04.]] So the Israelites did so, and expelled them outside the camp. As the Lord had spoken to Moses, so the Israelites did. ### Restitution for Sin [[#Verse 05.]] Then the Lord spoke to Moses:  [[#Verse 06.]] “Tell the Israelites, ‘When a man or a woman commits any sin that people commit, thereby breaking faith with the Lord, and that person is found guilty,  [[#Verse 07.]] then he must confess his sin that he has committed and must make full reparation, add one-fifth to it, and give it to whomever he wronged.  [[#Verse 08.]] But if the individual has no close relative to whom reparation can be made for the wrong, the reparation for the wrong must be paid to the Lord for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement by which atonement is made for him.  [[#Verse 09.]] Every offering of all the Israelites’ holy things that they bring to the priest will be his.  [[#Verse 10.]] Every man’s holy things will be his; whatever any man gives the priest will be his.’” ### The Jealousy Ordeal [[#Verse 11.]]  The Lord spoke to Moses:  [[#Verse 12.]] “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and behaves unfaithfully toward him,  [[#Verse 13.]] and a man goes to bed with her for sexual relations without her husband knowing it, and it is undetected that she has defiled herself since there was no witness against her, nor was she caught in the act—  [[#Verse 14.]] and if jealous feelings come over him and he becomes suspicious of his wife when she is defiled, or if jealous feelings come over him and he becomes suspicious of his wife, when she is not defiled—  [[#Verse 15.]] then the man must bring his wife to the priest, and he must bring the offering required for her, one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he must not pour olive oil on it or put frankincense on it because it is a grain offering of suspicion, a grain offering for remembering, for bringing iniquity to remembrance. [[#Verse 16.]] “‘Then the priest will bring her near and have her stand before the Lord.  [[#Verse 17.]] The priest will then take holy water in a pottery jar, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle, and put it into the water.  [[#Verse 18.]] Then the priest will have the woman stand before the Lord, and he will uncover the woman’s head and put the grain offering for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of suspicion. The priest will hold in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse.  [[#Verse 19.]] Then the priest will put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has gone to bed with you, and if you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband’s authority, may you be free from this bitter water that brings a curse.  [[#Verse 20.]] But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has had sexual relations with you—”  [[#Verse 21.]] (then the priest will put the woman under the oath of the curse and will say to her) “the Lord make you an attested curse among your people if the Lord makes your thigh fall away and your abdomen swell,  [[#Verse 22.]] and this water that causes the curse will go into your stomach and make your abdomen swell and your thigh rot.” Then the woman must say, “Amen, amen.” [[#Verse 23.]] “‘Then the priest will write these curses on a scroll and then scrape them off into the bitter water.  [[#Verse 24.]] He will make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings a curse will enter her to produce bitterness.  [[#Verse 25.]] The priest will take the grain offering of suspicion from the woman’s hand, wave the grain offering before the Lord, and bring it to the altar.  [[#Verse 26.]] Then the priest will take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial portion, burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water. [[#Verse 27.]] When he has made her drink the water, then if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, the water that brings a curse will enter her to produce bitterness—her abdomen will swell, her thigh will fall away, and the woman will become a curse among her people.  [[#Verse 28.]] But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she will be free of ill effects and will be able to bear children. [[#Verse 29.]] “‘This is the law for cases of jealousy, when a wife, while under her husband’s authority, goes astray and defiles herself,  [[#Verse 30.]] or when jealous feelings come over a man and he becomes suspicious of his wife; then he must have the woman stand before the Lord, and the priest will carry out all this law upon her.  [[#Verse 31.]] Then the man will be free from iniquity, but that woman will bear the consequences of her iniquity.’” ## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary ###### Overall. ###### Verse 01. ###### Verse 02. ###### Verse 03. ###### Verse 04. ###### Verse 05. ###### Verse 06. ###### Verse 07. ###### Verse 08. ###### Verse 09. ###### Verse 10. ###### Verse 11. ###### Verse 12. ###### Verse 13. ###### Verse 14. ###### Verse 15. ###### Verse 16. ###### Verse 17. ###### Verse 18. ###### Verse 19. ###### Verse 20. ###### Verse 21. ###### Verse 22. ###### Verse 23. ###### Verse 24. ###### Verse 25. ###### Verse 26. ###### Verse 27. ###### Verse 28. ###### Verse 29. ###### Verse 30. ###### Verse 31. ## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights 1. The camp was to be kept clean because the Lord lived among His people (5:3). 2. Restitution required repaying the full amount plus an added fifth (5:7; Leviticus 6:5). 3. If the wronged person had no relative to receive repayment, it went to the Lord through the priest (5:8). 4. The offering in the jealousy ritual was barley flour without oil or frankincense (5:15). 5. Dust from the tabernacle floor was put into holy water for the test (5:17). 6. The written curses were washed off into the water the woman drank (5:23). 7. This is the only ritual of its kind in the Law of Moses, and the result depended on God, not on anything harmful in the water. 8. Because the case was brought to the priest, a husband could not simply punish his wife on suspicion. 9. The Mishnah has a whole tractate, *Sotah*, discussing this ritual. 10. Zacchaeus' promise to repay four times what he took (Luke 19:8) went far beyond the added fifth required here. ## 🧠 Chapter Summary > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter Christ is the One who makes the unclean clean. Those who were unclean were sent outside the camp (5:2-3), but Jesus reached out and touched the leper and made him clean (Mark 1:40-42). ## 🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 💬 Discussion Questions 1. Why did God want uncleanness removed from the camp where He lived (5:3)? 2. Confession in this chapter included repaying the wrong plus one fifth (5:6-7). What does real repentance look like when we have harmed someone? 3. The test of jealousy put the outcome in God's hands (5:11-31). What does it look like to entrust hidden things to God? ## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember - 📖 verses 2-3: The unclean are sent outside the camp where the Lord lives. - 📖 verses 6-7: The guilty person must confess and repay in full plus one fifth. - 📖 verses 29-30: The ritual for suspected unfaithfulness is brought before the Lord. ## 🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference - 🔗 [[Leviticus 06#Verse 01.|Leviticus 6:1-7]] - Restitution plus one fifth. - 🔗 [[Leviticus 13#Verse 46.|Leviticus 13:46]] - The unclean live outside the camp. - 🔗 [[Mark 01#Verse 40.|Mark 1:40-42]] - Jesus touches and cleanses a leper. - 🔗 [[Luke 19#Verse 08.|Luke 19:8]] - Zacchaeus repays those he cheated. - 🔗 [[1 John 01#Verse 09.|1 John 1:9]] - If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive. ## 🙏 Devotional Reflection > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 📂 Internal Notes