Numbers 5:11

Contemporary English Version

The Lord told Moses

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
The LORD spoke to Moshe, saying,

King James Version
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

Lexham English Bible
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

New Century Version
Then the Lord said to Moses,

New English Translation
The Lord spoke to Moses:

Amplified Bible
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

New American Standard Bible
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

Geneva Bible (1587)
And the Lord spake vnto Moses, saying,

Legacy Standard Bible
Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

Complete Jewish Bible
(A: iv) Adonai said to Moshe,

Darby Translation
And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

Easy-to-Read Version
Then the Lord said to Moses,

English Standard Version
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

George Lamsa Translation
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

Good News Translation
The Lord commanded Moses

Christian Standard Bible®
The Lord spoke to Moses:

Literal Translation
And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And the LORDE talked with Moses, and sayde:

American Standard Version
And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying,

Bible in Basic English
And the Lord said to Moses,

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And the Lorde spake vnto Moyses, saying:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
and the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying:

King James Version (1611)
And the Lord spake vnto Moses, saying,

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

English Revised Version
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Berean Standard Bible
Then the LORD said to Moses,

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And the Lord spak to Moises,

Young's Literal Translation
And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,

Update Bible Version
And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

Webster's Bible Translation
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

World English Bible
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

New King James Version
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

New Living Translation
And the Lord said to Moses,

New Life Bible
The Lord said to Moses,

New Revised Standard
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And Yahweh spake unto Moses saying:

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

Revised Standard Version
And the LORD said to Moses,

THE MESSAGE
God spoke to Moses: "Tell the People of Israel, Say a man's wife goes off and has an affair, is unfaithful to him by sleeping with another man, but her husband knows nothing about it even though she has defiled herself. And then, even though there was no witness and she wasn't caught in the act, feelings of jealousy come over the husband and he suspects that his wife is impure. Even if she is innocent and his jealousy and suspicions are groundless, he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of two quarts of barley flour for her. He is to pour no oil on it or mix incense with it because it is a Grain-Offering for jealousy, a Grain-Offering for bringing the guilt out into the open.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

Contextual Overview

¹¹ The Lord told Moses ¹²to say to the people of Israel: Suppose a man becomes jealous and suspects that his wife has been unfaithful, but he has no proof. ¹⁵ He must take his wife to the priest, together with two pounds of ground barley as an offering to find out if she is guilty. No olive oil or incense is to be put on that offering. ¹⁶ The priest is to have the woman stand at my altar, ¹⁷ where he will pour sacred water into a clay jar and stir in some dust from the floor of the sacred tent. ¹⁸Next, he will remove her veil, then hand her the barley offering, and say, "If you have been faithful to your husband, this water won't harm you. But if you have been unfaithful, it will bring down the Lord 's curse—you will never be able to give birth to a child, and everyone will curse your name." Then the woman will answer, "If I am guilty, let it happen just as you say." ²³ The priest will write these curses on special paper and wash them off into the bitter water, ²⁴ so that when the woman drinks this water, the curses will enter her body. ²⁵ He will take the barley offering from her and lift it up in dedication to me, the Lord . Then he will place it on my altar ²⁶ and burn part of it as a sacrifice. After that, the woman must drink the bitter water.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Reciprocal: Proverbs 30:20 - General

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... At the same time, and delivered to him a new law:

saying; as follows.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The trial of jealousy. Since the crime of adultery is especially defiling and destructive of the very foundations of social order, the whole subject is dealt with at a length proportionate to its importance. The process prescribed has lately been strikingly illustrated from an Egyptian “romance,” which refers to the time of Rameses the Great, and may therefore well serve to illustrate the manners and customs of the Mosaic times. This mode of trial, like several other ordinances, was adopted by Moses from existing and probably very ancient and widely spread institutions.

Numbers 5:15

The offering was to be of the cheapest and coarsest kind, barley (compare 2 Kings 7:1, 2 Kings 7:16, 2 Kings 7:18), representing the abused condition of the suspected woman. It was, like the sin-offering Leviticus 5:11, to be made without oil and frankincense, the symbols of grace and acceptableness. The woman herself stood with head uncovered Numbers 5:18, in token of her shame.

Numbers 5:17

The dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle - To set forth the fact that the water was endued with extraordinary power by Him who dwelt in the tabernacle. Dust is an emblem of a state of condemnation Genesis 3:14; Micah 7:17.

Numbers 5:19

Gone aside ... - literally, “gone astray from” thy husband by uncleanness; compare Hosea 4:12.

Numbers 5:23

Blot them out with the bitter water - In order to transfer the curses to the water. The action was symbolic. Travelers speak of the natives of Africa as still habitually seeking to obtain the full force of a written charm by drinking the water into which they have washed it.

Numbers 5:24

Shall cause the woman to drink - Thus was symbolised both her full acceptance of the hypothetical curse (compare Ezekiel 3:1-3; Jeremiah 15:16; Revelation 10:9), and its actual operation upon her if she should be guilty (compare Psalms 109:18).

Numbers 5:26

The memorial thereof - See the marginal reference. “Memorial” here is not the same as “memorial” in Numbers 5:15.

Numbers 5:27

Of itself, the drink was not noxious; and could only produce the effects here described by a special interposition of God. We do not read of any instance in which this ordeal was resorted to: a fact which may be explained either (with the Jews) as a proof of its efficacy, since the guilty could not be brought to face its terrors at all, and avoided them by confession; or more probably by the license of divorce tolerated by the law of Moses. Since a husband could put away his wife at pleasure, a jealous man would naturally prefer to take this course with a suspected wife rather than to call public attention to his own shame by having recourse to the trial of jealousy. The trial by red water, which bears a general resemblance to that here prescribed by Moses, is still in use among the tribes of Western Africa.