World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Numbers 5
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
1 spoke to , saying, "Command the that they put out of the camp every , everyone who has a discharge, and whoever is by a corpse. You shall put both male and female outside of the camp so that they don't defile their camp, in the midst of which I ." 4The did so, and put them outside of the camp; as spoke to , so the did. 5 spoke to , saying, "Speak to the : 'When a man or woman commits any that men commit, so as to trespass against , and that is guilty, then he shall his which he has done; and he shall for his in full, add to it the fifth part of it, and give it to him in respect of whom he has been guilty. But if the man has no kinsman to whom may be made for the , the for which is made to shall be the priest's, in addition to the ram of the atonement, by which atonement shall be made for him. Every heave of all the things of the , which they present to the priest, shall be his. Every man's things shall be his; whatever any man gives the priest, it shall be his.'" 11 spoke to , saying, "Speak to the , and tell them: 'If any man's wife goes astray and is to him, and a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband and this is kept concealed, and she is defiled, there is no against her, and she isn't taken in the act; and of comes on him, and he is of his wife and she is defiled; or if of comes on him, and he is of his wife and she isn't defiled; then the man shall bring his wife to the priest, and shall bring her for her: one tenth of an ephah of barley meal. He shall pour no oil on it, nor put on it, for it is a of , a of memorial, bringing to memory. The priest shall bring her near, and set her before . The priest shall take water in an ; and the priest shall take some of that is on the floor of the and put it into the water. The priest shall set the woman before , and let the hair of the woman's head go loose, and put the of memorial in her hands, which is the of . The priest shall have in his hand the water of bitterness that brings . The priest shall cause her to take an and shall tell the woman, "If no man has lain with you, and if you haven't gone aside to uncleanness, being under your husband's , be free from this water of bitterness that brings . But if you have gone astray, being under your husband's , and if you are defiled, and some man has lain with you besides your husband—" then the priest shall cause the woman to with the of , and the priest shall tell the woman, "May make you and an among your people, when allows your thigh to fall away, and your body to swell; and this water that brings will go into your bowels, and make your body swell, and your thigh fall away." The woman shall say, ", ." "'The priest shall write these in a book, and he shall wipe them into the water of bitterness. He shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that causes the ; and the water that causes the shall enter into her and become bitter. The priest shall take the of out of the woman's hand, and shall wave the before , and bring it to the . The priest shall take a handful of the , as its memorial , and burn it on the , and afterward shall make the woman drink the water. When he has made her drink the water, then it shall happen, if she is defiled and has committed a trespass against her husband, that the water that causes the will enter into her and become bitter, and her body will swell, and her thigh will fall away; and the woman will be among her people. If the woman isn't defiled, but is clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive . "'This is of , when a wife, being under her husband, goes astray, and is defiled, 30or when of comes on a man, and he is of his wife; then he shall set the woman before , and the priest shall execute on her all this law. The man shall be free from , and that woman shall bear her .'"
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Egypt and Sinai, 1450 BC to 1200 BC ›
Israel in and then out of Egypt, at a period when Egypt was an imperial power that also controlled Canaan. The nation is formed as a people with a law before it has any land.
- Egypt
- The New Kingdom at its imperial peak, with a professional army, a chariot corps, and control reaching up through Canaan. Ramesses II reigns for sixty-six years and covers the country in monuments to himself. Egyptian power in this period is the reason Canaan is garrisoned rather than free.
- The Hittites
- The other superpower, in what is now Turkey, and Egypt's rival for the Levant. The two fight the largest chariot battle of the ancient world at Kadesh, then sign a treaty whose text survives from both sides. Hittite treaty form, with its historical prologue, stipulations, witnesses, blessings, and curses, is the shape the Sinai covenant takes, which is one of the stronger arguments for the antiquity of that material.
- The Aegean
- Mycenaean Greece: warrior kings in stone citadels at Mycenae and Pylos, keeping palace accounts in Linear B. The world of the Trojan War stories, whatever lies behind them.
- Further afield
- The Shang dynasty in China is casting extraordinary bronzes and writing questions to its ancestors on ox bones. In Mesoamerica the Olmec are beginning the first civilisation of the Americas.