The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
"Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who is unclean—whether because of a skin disease, a bodily discharge, or contact with a dead body. Send them outside the camp, male and female alike, so that they do not defile the place where I dwell among My people."
The Israelites obeyed, sending the unclean outside the camp, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Again the LORD spoke:
"When a man or woman wrongs another and so is unfaithful to the LORD, that person is guilty. They must confess the sin they have committed, make full restitution to the one they wronged, and add a fifth to it. If the injured person has no relative to receive the restitution, it shall be given to the priest, together with the ram of atonement for the guilty person.
Every sacred contribution the Israelites bring to a priest belongs to him. Each person's sacred gifts are his own, but once given to the priest, they remain with him."
Then the LORD gave Moses another command:
"Speak to the Israelites and say: If a man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him—though hidden from his eyes, with no witness and no proof—yet jealousy rises in his heart and he suspects her, whether she is guilty or innocent, he must bring her to the priest. He shall also bring as her offering a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He must not pour oil on it or place incense on it, for it is an offering of jealousy, a reminder of possible guilt."
The priest was then to bring the woman before the LORD. Taking holy water in a clay jar, he mixed in dust from the Tabernacle floor. The woman's hair was loosened, and in her hands she held the offering of jealousy, while the priest held the bitter water that brings a curse.
The priest placed her under oath, saying:
"If no man has lain with you, if you have not strayed from your husband's bed, may this bitter water not harm you. But if you have been unfaithful, may the LORD make you a curse among your people: may your womb swell and your thigh waste away as this bitter water enters you."
At this, the woman was to respond, "Amen. So be it."
The priest then wrote the curses on a scroll, washed the words into the bitter water, and made the woman drink it. He took the grain offering from her hands, waved it before the LORD, and burned a handful of it on the altar as a memorial. Then she drank the water.
If she had indeed been unfaithful, the water would bring bitter suffering—her abdomen swelling, her thigh wasting away, and she would become a curse among her people. But if she was innocent, she would suffer no harm and would remain able to bear children.
Thus was established the law of jealousy: whether a wife had strayed, or whether suspicion alone had stirred her husband, the priest was to apply this law. The husband bore no guilt; the woman would bear her own sin.