Unclean People
1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the people of Israel that they iput out of the camp everyone who is leprous1 or has ja discharge and everyone who is kunclean through contact with the dead. 3 You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, lin the midst of which I dwell.” 4 And the people of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp; as the Lord said to Moses, so the people of Israel did.
Confession and Restitution
5 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 6 “Speak to the people of Israel, mWhen a man or woman commits any of the sins that people commit by breaking faith with the Lord, and that person realizes his guilt, 7 nhe shall confess his sin that he has committed.2 oAnd he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong. 8 But if the man has no next of kin to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution for wrong shall go to the Lord for the priest, in addition to pthe ram of atonement with which atonement is made for him. 9 And qevery contribution, all the holy donations of the people of Israel, which they bring to the priest, shall be his. 10 Each one shall keep his holy donations: whatever anyone gives to the priest shall be his.”
A Test for Adultery
11 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 12 “Speak to the people of Israel, If any man’s wife goes astray and breaks faith with him, 13 if a man rlies with her sexually, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, ssince she was not taken in the act, 14 and if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself, 15 then the man shall bring his wife to the priest and bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephah3 of barley flour. tHe shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, ubringing 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 earthenware vessel and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. 18 And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and vunbind the hair of the woman’s head and place in her hands the grain offering of remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And in his hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse. 19 Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, ‘If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanness while you were under your husband’s authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse. 20 But if you have gone astray, though you are under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband has lain with you, 21 then’ (let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse, and say to the woman) w‘the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh fall away and your body swell. 22 May this water that brings the curse xpass into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away.’ And the woman shall say, y‘Amen, Amen.’
23 “Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and wash them off into the water of bitterness. 24 And he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain. 25 And the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy out of the woman’s hand zand shall wave the grain offering before the Lord and bring it to the altar. 26 And the priest ashall take a handful of the grain offering, as its memorial portion, and burn it on the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water. 27 And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman bshall become a curse among her people. 28 But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children.
29 “This is the law in cases of jealousy, when a wife, cthough under her husband’s authority, goes astray and defiles herself, 30 or when the spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife. Then he shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall carry out for her all this law. 31 The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman dshall bear her iniquity.”
What Is the Measure of My Days?
To the choirmaster: to vJeduthun. A Psalm of David.
1 I said, “I will wguard my ways,
that I xmay not sin with my tongue;
I will yguard my mouth with a muzzle,
so long as the wicked are in my presence.”
2 I was zmute and silent;
I held my peace to no avail,
and my distress grew worse.
3 My aheart became hot within me.
As I mused, the fire burned;
then I spoke with my tongue:
4 “O Lord, bmake me know my end
and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting I am!
5 Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,
and cmy lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely dall mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah
6 Surely a man egoes about as a shadow!
Surely for nothing1 they are in turmoil;
man fheaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!
7 “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?
gMy hope is in you.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions.
hDo not make me the scorn of the fool!
9 iI am mute; I do not open my mouth,
jfor it is you who have done it.
10 kRemove your stroke from me;
I am spent by the hostility of your hand.
11 When you discipline a man
with lrebukes for sin,
you mconsume like a nmoth what is dear to him;
osurely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah
12 p“Hear my prayer, O Lord,
and give ear to my cry;
hold not your peace at my tears!
For I am qa sojourner with you,
qa guest, like all my fathers.
13 rLook away from me, that I may smile again,
The Bride’s Dream
1 On my bed rby night
I sought shim whom my soul loves;
tI sought him, but found him not.
2 I will rise now and go about the city,
in uthe streets and in the squares;
I will seek shim whom my soul loves.
I sought him, but found him not.
3 vThe watchmen found me
as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
4 Scarcely had I passed them
when I found shim whom my soul loves.
I wheld him, and would not let him go
until I had xbrought him into my mother’s house,
and into the chamber of yher who conceived me.
5 zI adjure you, aO daughters of Jerusalem,
bby the gazelles or the does of the field,
that you not stir up or awaken love
until it pleases.
Solomon Arrives for the Wedding
6 cWhat is that coming up from the wilderness
like dcolumns of smoke,
perfumed with emyrrh and frankincense,
with all the fragrant powders of a merchant?
7 Behold, it is the litter1 of Solomon!
Around it are fsixty gmighty men,
some of the mighty men of Israel,
8 all of them wearing swords
and expert in war,
each with his hsword at his thigh,
against iterror by night.
9 King Solomon made himself a carriage2
from the wood of Lebanon.
10 He made its posts of silver,
its back of gold, its seat of purple;
its interior was inlaid with love
by jthe daughters of Jerusalem.
11 Go out, O kdaughters of Zion,
and look upon King Solomon,
with the crown with which his mother crowned him
on lthe day of his wedding,
on the day of the gladness of his heart.
Jesus Greater Than Moses
1 Therefore, holy brothers,1 you who share in ra heavenly calling, consider Jesus, sthe apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, tjust as Moses also was faithful in all God’s2 house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but uthe builder of all things is God.) 5 vNow Moses was faithful in all God’s house was a servant, xto testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as ya son. And zwe are his house, if indeed we ahold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.3
A Rest for the People of God
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
b“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for cforty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
11 dAs I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from ethe living God. 13 But fexhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by gthe deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, hif indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,
b“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
16 For iwho were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not jall those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, kwhose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that lthey would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that mthey were unable to enter because of unbelief.
