Knox Bible

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This was the Lord’s word to Moses,

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Bid the sons of Israel cast out from their encampment all the lepers, all those who have a running at the reins, or are defiled by contact with the dead.

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Men and women alike must be shut out from the camp, so as not to pollute it when I am making my abode with you.

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This the Israelites did, shutting out such persons from the camp in obedience to the command which the Lord gave to Moses.

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This, too, was a message the Lord gave to Moses

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for the sons of Israel, If man or woman commits any of those wrongs mankind is prone to commit, and incurs guilt by neglecting the Lord’s commandment,

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confession must be made of it, and the sum paid back, with a fifth part added besides, to the wronged party.

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If there is no one to whom restitution can be made, they must make their payment to the Lord, and it will belong to his priest, over and above the ram which is offered in expiation, to win pardon for the wrong done.

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So, too, all the first-fruits which the Israelites offer belong to the priest;

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and all offerings made to the sanctuary, once they have been put in the priest’s hand, become his.

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This, too, was a message the Lord gave to Moses

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for the sons of Israel: It may be that a married woman will leave her duty, and, in despite of her own husband,

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bed with another; yet her husband will have no means of discovering her guilty secret; no witness caught her in the act of adultery.

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What, then, if a man be inflamed with jealousy against his wife, that either is defiled, or has brought false suspicion on herself?

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He must bring her before the priest, and make offering for her of barleymeal, the tenth part of a bushel. He will pour no oil over it, put no incense on it; this is the jealous man’s sacrifice, and the purpose of his offering is to detect unfaithfulness.

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The priest will cause her to appear, and bring her into the Lord’s presence,

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and will take up an earthen jar of lustral water, into which he will put a handful of dust from the tabernacle floor.

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Then he will unveil the woman’s head, as she stands there in the Lord’s presence, and put into her hands the token-sacrifice, the jealous man’s offering; in his own hand will be the baneful waters, embittered now by his curse.✻

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And he will put the ban on her; If it is true no stranger has bedded with thee, and thou hast never defiled thyself by forsaking thy husband’s bed, then these baneful waters I have cursed will have no power to harm thee.

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But if thou hast left thy duty towards thy husband, and defiled thyself by bedding with another man,

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then this curse of mine will bind thee: The Lord make thee a by-word of all that is accursed among his people, make thy thigh rot and thy belly swell till it bursts.

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Once this cursed water has entered thy belly, belly must swell and thigh rot. And here the woman shall answer, Amen, amen.

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This ban the priest shall write down in a book, and wash it with the baneful waters he has cursed,

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and so make her drink them. When she has finished the draught

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the priest will take the jealous man’s sacrifice from her hand, lift it up in the Lord’s presence, and lay it on the altar.

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Only, before all this is done, he must take a handful of what is offered, by way of token-sacrifice, and burn it on the altar; then he will make her drink the baneful waters.

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And when she has drunk them, if she is indeed defiled, and has been guilty of adultery in her husband’s despite, the cursed water as it passes into her will make her belly swell and her thigh rot, and she will be a by-word of all that is accursed among the people.

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But if she is innocent, she will take no harm, and will become a mother of children.

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Such is the law concerning jealousy. If a woman leaves her husband and is defiled,

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and her husband, inflamed with jealousy, brings her into the Lord’s presence, so that the priest can carry out the rite aforesaid,

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the husband is without blame; the fault is hers, and she must answer for it.