If the Spirit of Jealousy Come Upon a Man Numbers 5

If the Spirit of Jealousy Come Upon a Man as presented in Numbers 5: This is what the Sovereign LORD of Israel said to the children of Israel. Suppose a man becomes jealous and suspects that his wife has been unfaithful to him, but he has no proof.

This is what he must do; in Israel, he must take his wife to the priest, together with two pounds of ground barley as an offering. This is to find out if she is guilty or no. No olive oil or incense is to be put on that offering.

The priest will have the woman stand at the LORD’s altar, where he will pour holy water into a clay jar and stir in some dust from the floor of the sacred tent.

Remove the Woman’s Covering

Next, he will remove her veil or head-covering, 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.”

This is pretty harsh, but imagine all the wives of the world if they understood this would be the process. We can already see flirtatiousness down 87% just in this testimony. Let’s continue, then the woman will answer, “If I am guilty, let it happen just as you say.”

The priest will write these curses on special paper and wash them off into the bitter water so that when the woman drinks the water, the curses will enter her body. This reads like something we would see happening in a remote village in Nigeria, Uganda, or even in India.

The woman would then drink the water and we just have to pray she was faithful. Here’s excerpts from the chapter:

Numbers 5

11 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

12 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man’s wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him,

13 And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner;

14 And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled:

15 Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance.

16 And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord:

17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water:

18 And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse:

19 And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse:

20 But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband:

21 Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell;

22 And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.

23 And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water:

24 And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter.

25 Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering before the Lord, and offer it upon the altar:

26 And the priest shall take an handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water.

27 And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people.

28 And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed.

29 This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled;

30 Or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law.

31 Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.

Now to the Judgment

If the woman has been unfaithful, the water will immediately make her unable to have children. She will be a curse among her people. But if she is innocent, her body will not be harmed, and she will still be able to have children.

This is the ceremony that must take place at the LORD’s altar when a husband suspects that his wife has been unfaithful. The priest must have the woman stand in the LORD ALMIGHTY’s presence and carefully follow the above instructions.

If the husband is wrong, he will not be punished; but if his wife is guilty, she will be punished. In our day of gender equality, this does not sound like the ALMIGHTY had gender equality in terms of how we see advocated today (just an observation).

This is certainly something to consider. We all must do our best to return back to the ways given by the ALMIGHTY LORD HIMSELF.

More 5 Minute Studies

From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The disciples asked, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

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