Chapter Five

An order to remove from the Hebrew camp persons subject to physical impurity. — A law about the return of wrongfully acquired property. — The ritual of jealousy.

Numbers 5:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Numbers 5:2. Command the sons of Israel to put out of the camp everyone who is leprous, or has a discharge, and everyone who is unclean through contact with a corpse; Numbers 5:3. both male and female you shall put out, putting them outside the camp; for they will make their camp unclean, where I dwell among them. While seeking to preserve inner purity, the members of the chosen people were also to maintain outer purity as a symbol and expression of the purity of the spirit. Being a symbol of the latter, physical purity could serve many of the imperfect as both its sign and also its stimulus: increased care for the body could lead to moral cleanliness. “The small teaches the great,” remarks Theodoret. “If one who touches a dead body is unclean, then much more unclean is one who causes death. If a leper is unclean, then much more unclean is one who indulges in all kinds of vices. In the person who emits seed, sexual immorality is condemned, for if it is unclean even when involuntary, then much more is it vile when done intentionally” (Commentary on Numbers, question 8; see also Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Numbers, ch. 5). At the same time, of course, there were also considerations of a hygienic and sanitary nature. Physical impurity of a Hebrew, which made him unclean before God and people, depended partly on the condition of his own body (certain illnesses and physiological processes), and partly on contact with unclean objects. The physically unclean were excluded from the camp: the leprous for the entire duration of the illness, and others only for the time of lawful purification. The rite of purification consisted in some cases of simple washing (Lev 11:28); in others — of sprinkling with cleansing water (Num 19:11-12); in a third case — of offering a sacrifice (Lev 14).

Numbers 5:5. And the Lord said to Moses, saying: Numbers 5:6. Speak to the sons of Israel: if a man or a woman commits any of the sins that people commit, breaking faith with the Lord, and that person realizes their guilt, Numbers 5:7. then they shall confess the sin they have committed; and they shall make full restitution for the wrong, adding one-fifth to it, and giving it to the one they have wronged; Numbers 5:8. but if the injured party has no next-of-kin to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution for wrong shall go to the Lord, to the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement with which atonement is made for the guilty party; One who unlawfully took possession of a thing must return it to the owner or to his heir (in the absence of the latter, to the tabernacle), with the addition of one-fifth of the value of the stolen property. Serving as punishment for theft, the additional fifth also served as a warning for the future. Besides returning the property to the injured party, the guilty one was also obliged to bring a guilt offering (Lev 5:15; Lev 6:2-6).

Numbers 5:15. then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. And he shall bring the offering required for her, one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal. He shall not pour oil on it or put frankincense on it, for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance. According to the explanation of Theodoret, the sacrifice was deprived of oil and frankincense because the presumed crime, which was its occasion, lacked the fragrance and light of righteousness (Commentary on Numbers, question 10).

Numbers 5:17. Then the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water; “Holy water” means water from the bronze basin at the tabernacle. “Dust from the floor of the tabernacle,” to show the depth of the fall of the guilty woman. “And he shall uncover the woman’s head,” — in expression of her deep sorrow and also to indicate the divine omniscience, before which nothing is hidden. “Bitter water” was so called either because of the curse which it imparted to the guilty, or because of the composition of bitter herbs (wormwood), which were included in it (Calmet).

Numbers 5:23. Then the priest shall write these curses on a scroll, and wash them off into the bitter water; According to the tradition of the Rabbis, the curse pronounced by the priest was written on a scroll with a writing that would not wash away from the material of the scroll.

Numbers 5:31. and the man shall be clear of guilt, but the woman shall bear her iniquity. Serving as an actual punishment for the guilty woman in adultery, the ritual of jealousy proved to be the triumph and vindication for the one falsely suspected. According to the accounts of travelers, among some tribes of Africa to this day the custom of testing a woman’s purity by means of “bitter water” has persisted (Vlastov, “Sacred Chronicle”).