When Holiness Breaks: The Path of Faith and Trust Restored

GOD spoke to Moses, saying: Instruct the Israelites to remove from camp anyone with an eruption or a discharge and anyone defiled by a corpse. Remove male and female alike; put them outside the camp so that they do not defile the camp of those in whose midst I dwell. The Israelites did so, putting them outside the camp; as GOD had spoken to Moses, so the Israelites did. GOD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelites: When a man or woman has committed any wrong toward a fellow human being, thus breaking faith with GOD, and they have realized their guilt, they shall confess the wrong that they have done. They shall make restitution in the principal amount and add one-fifth to it, giving it to the one who was wronged. If that party [is deceased and] has no kin to whom restitution can be made, the amount repaid shall go to GOD for the priest—in addition to the ram of expiation with which expiation is made on their behalf. So, too, any gift among the sacred donations that the Israelites offer shall be the priest’s. And each shall retain his sacred donations: each priest shall keep what is given to him. GOD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelite people and say to them:Regarding anyone whose wife has gone astray and broken faith with him, in that another man has had carnal relations with her unbeknown to her husband, and she has kept secret the fact that she defiled herself without being forced, and there is no witness against her— but a fit of jealousy has come over him and he is wrought up about the wife who has defiled herself; or if a fit of jealousy has come over him and he is wrought up about his wife although she has not defiled herself: That man shall bring his wife to the priest. And he shall bring as an offering for her one-tenth of an ephah of barley flour. No oil shall be poured upon it and no frankincense shall be laid on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance that recalls wrongdoing. The priest shall bring her forward and have her stand before GOD. The priest shall take sacral water in an earthen vessel and, taking some of the earth that is on the floor of the Tabernacle, the priest shall put it into the water. After he has made the woman stand before GOD, the priest shall bare the woman’s head and place upon her hands the grain offering of remembrance, which is a grain offering of jealousy. And in the priest’s hands shall be the water of bitterness that induces the spell. uncertain. The priest shall adjure the woman, saying to her, “If no one else has lain with you, if you have not gone astray in defilement while in your husband’s household, be immune to harm from this water of bitterness that induces the spell. But if you have gone astray while committed to your husband and have defiled yourself, if anyone other than your husband has had carnal relations with you”— here the priest shall administer the curse of adjuration to the woman, as the priest goes on to say to the woman—“may GOD make you a curse and an imprecation among your people, as GOD causes your thigh to sag and your belly to distend; may this water that induces the spell enter your body, causing the belly to distend and the thigh to sag.” And the woman shall say, “Amen, amen!” The priest shall put these curses down in writing and rub it off into the water of bitterness. He is to make the woman drink the water of bitterness that induces the spell, so that the spell-inducing water may enter into her to bring on bitterness. Then the priest shall take from the woman’s hand the grain offering of jealousy, elevate the grain offering before GOD, and present it on the altar. The priest shall scoop out of the grain offering a token part of it and turn it into smoke on the altar. Last, he shall make the woman drink the water. Once he has made her drink the water—if she has defiled herself by breaking faith with her husband, the spell-inducing water shall enter into her to bring on bitterness, so that her belly shall distend and her thigh shall sag; and the woman shall become a curse among her people. But if the woman has not defiled herself and is pure, she shall be unharmed and able to retain seed. This is the ritual in cases of jealousy, when a woman goes astray while in her husband’s household and defiles herself, or when a man, overtaken by a fit of jealousy, is wrought up over his wife: the woman shall be made to stand before GOD and the priest shall carry out all this ritual with her. The man shall be clear of guilt; but that woman shall suffer for her guilt.

Numbers 5:1-20 moves from ceremonial purity (verses 1-4) to moral faithfulness (verses 5-10), then to marital fidelity tested by the bitter water ritual (verses 11-20). The Hebrew root underlying 'breaking faith' (ma'al) denotes treachery against a covenant relationship—whether with God or with a neighbor. This chapter shows that faith (Hebrew emunah, faithfulness/trust) is not a private feeling but a covenant bond whose breach demands confession, restitution, and priestly mediation.