1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,God tells Moses to pass along some more guidelines to the Israelites.
2 Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead:
3 Both male and female shall ye put out, without the camp shall ye put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell.
4 And the children of Israel did so, and put them out without the camp: as the LORD spake unto Moses, so did the children of Israel.
5 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
6 Speak unto the children of Israel, When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass against the LORD, and that person be guilty;
7 Then they shall confess their sin which they have done: and he shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof, and add unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed.
8 But if the man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompensed unto the LORD, even to the priest; beside the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him.
9 And every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his.
10 And every man's hallowed things shall be his: whatsoever any man giveth the priest, it shall be his.
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.
First, they must expel from their camp all the lepers, everyone who's oozing discharge, and "whosoever is defiled by the dead." One more reason to avoid being raped by a zombie.
If someone commits a crime, s/he must confess it and pay it back with 20% interest. If there's no one to repay, give the money to the Lord, by way of the priest. Grease his palm next to the "ram of the atonement."
In fact, "every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his." In fact, "every man's hallowed things shall be his: whatsoever any man giveth the priest, it shall be his." In fact, being a priest is a pretty good gig.
Anyway, more rules...
If a husband suspects his wife of cheating on him, he brings her — and a "jealousy offering" of barley — to a priest.
The priest takes holy water (first reference to what may be the best water on Earth) and mixes in some dust from the tabernacle floor. He "set(s) the woman before the LORD" and uncovers her head. He gives her the barley and holds "the bitter water that causeth the curse."
If this weren't the Holy Bible, you'd almost think this was some kind of witchcraft or insane mumbo-jumbo. But that couldn't be, could it? Of course not!
The priest makes her take an oath, and she's innocent, the water won't give her a curse, and she'll be free and fertile. If she's guilty, the Lord will make her thigh rot and her belly swell.
"And the woman shall say, Amen, amen." Who wouldn't say "amen" to that?
3 comments:
the old testament Judaism is alot differnt than modern day christianity. the jews we're bound by the rules that they we're seperated from Jehovah, by sin. The blood sacrifices were kind of like band aids, and also prophetic metaphors and such towards Christ's blood sacrifice later on.
the reasoning for this is that
God= the source of all life
Sin= anything that goes against God.
so the punishment of Sin is death, or sacrifice. the sacrificing of burnt offerings, or death(seperation from God, i.e. with satan, cut off from God in hell)
When Jesus came he was a sort of proverbial sacrifical lamb.
Notice how anybody who saw God in the old testament died (because of sin). that's because when Jesus came any Christian's who saw God face to face had a sort of Mediator/go between, of forgiveness.
sorry if that made no sense
Yet again this chapter is from the pen of the later priestly writers, later additions to the original priestly source. The additions were a gradual process, which is why there are several distinct and fairly unconnected sections.
The first section is about exclusion from cities and towns, anachronistically placed in the Israelites "camp" (of nearly 2 million people) here. This is a modification of the earlier laws; back in the first half of leviticus (also from [different] later priestly writers) only the leper had to be excluded from society, but here its basically anyone at all who is ritually impure by direct cause (rather than from having touched someone ritually impure).
The second section is an attempt to modify the slightly earlier law concerning Guilt Offerings that had been written in what is now Leviticus 6 (itself an addition to the laws in the Holiness Code). The earlier law doesn't mention what should be done if the original restitution can't be made because the person who should have received it is dead and has no heirs, so here you have a priestly writer deciding to explain what should be done when such a situation happens; this is an example of a priestly writer feeling a need to "fill in the gaps" in the earlier laws (that's why leviticus, the end of exodus, and the start of numbers, are so expansive; the priestly writers couldn't resist filling in the inevitable gaps, and then filling in the gaps from those additions, and the gaps created by the previous filling in, etc.).
In typical priestly-source style, its "'if no-one claims it, its mine', oh, cough, no its not a priest writing this, I meant to write 'if no-one claims it, its the priest's'".
But the most interesting section is the third one. Its about suspected adultery by a woman. Not only was it added by a later priestly writer, but another priestly writer has modified it afterwards. One version of this section was "if you suspect a woman of adultery, make her take the trial by 'bitter water'; the other version was "if you think she's guilty, then she is, so make an offering". The combination is misleading, as the "mix holy water with tabernacle floor dust" (verse 17) is part of the latter version, where the woman is made to drink the "water" (note that it is not worded as "bitter water") after making the barley offering (verse 26); the "bitter water" is something else, presumably containing barley, since barley is involved in the other version of the ritual. As with the priestly source in general "magical rituals" tends to be earlier versions than "make an offering", which is the later priestly writers' solution for virtually everything (and replacement for earlier rituals); although, in the Yahwist text, in the story of Tamar (back in what is now 'Genesis'), its clear that in earlier times (when the Yahwist text was written) guilt could just be assumed, even leading to execution on the basis of the man going "I suspect she did it, so kill her".
The amazingly descriptive "her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot" is misleading (its translated more literally than it should have been); its really saying "she will have a miscarriage/abortion". What seems like the presumption of supernatural powers, is in this case not quite so magical; the "bitter water" was basically a primitive attempt at drug-induced abortion. For example, wild carrot, mugwort, and nutmeg can cause abortion in the correct quantities; the "bitter water" is essentially something similar (consuming barley can sometimes cause abortion), though its phrased through theology-prejudiced writing (ie. something like "you must use wild carrot growing in a graveyard, and mugwort that has been slept on by a priest" rather than just "use wild carrot and mugwort").
The principle of the ritual is "if she has had sex with another man, she'll become pregnant" [remember the time period and culture: poor knowledge of contraceptives, and no condoms], and "therefore the drug will cause abortion, proving her guilt" - innocent women wouldn't be pregnant and therefore wouldn't be caused to have abortions; obviously the logic behind this fell apart if the woman was recently made pregnant by her husband (although one would assume that the husband wouldn't put her through the ritual unless he hadn't had sex with her for a while), or if she had been adulterous but she/the-other-man was infertile, etc. Clearly quite a few innocent women must have been found guilty, and a large number of adulterous women must have been declared innocent.
Barley eating was used as a method of trial well into the middle ages (when people had to eat barley bread, with the expectation that the guilty person would choke, and everyone else would be fine)
to address the Christianity thing (which is really not that connected to this chapter at all):
-"sin" in "old testament judaism" meant "ritual impurity". It DID include not washing after having sex, but did NOT include theft or stealing, and only included murder indirectly (and only if you actually touched the victim after or during the actual death). They saw blood as containing life, and connecting them to God, hence contact with a blood sacrifice was seen as purifying them. IT HAD ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH JESUS. IT WAS NOT PROPHETIC OF ANYTHING. Ask a qualified academic. Ask someone Jewish. Better still, read the Talmud, which tells you all about exactly what the Old Testament meant to the vast majority of people who read it from the 2nd century BC up to and including the beginnings of Christianity; as written by the people who were there.
And Hell didn't even exist in Jewish thought until the 6th century; before that, and among the majority for centuries after than, even now, it was "sheol", an "underworld" - just a sort of unexciting cave, not a punishment place.
Neither was Satan a villain or cut off from God, in the religion of the Israelites before the 6th century. In all the early books of the bible (early in the sense of "when they were written" rather than "where they are in the biblical sequence") Satan was just God's prosecutor, not a villain or enemy of God; the Book of Job for example makes this abundently clear. It was only AFTER contact with the dualism in Zoroastrianism (due to the later years of the Babylonian Captivity) that Judaism picked up ideas like a powerful supernatural villain and hell.
The sacred all-atoning sacrifice in Judaism was the GOAT and the BULL during Yom Kippur. NOT a lamb. Lamb sacrifices were only of minor significance.
Enoch saw God, and didn't die, not at all. According to the bible. Jacob saw God (at Peniel="face of God/El") and didn't die for several decades afterwards; he's even described as wrestling with him (whence the bible's claim that Israel="wrestled with God" - it actually means "fighter for El" [its "for" not "with", the other words are basically the same]). No mediator. According to the bible.
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