CHAPTER 5

(1490 B.C.)

CAMP REGULATIONS

¹And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

²Command the Children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and everyone who has an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead (where God dwells, evil must be put out; where evil was committed, provision was made for restitution and forgiveness; but it had to be done Gods Way; leprosy was a type of sin, and death was the result of sin [Rom. 6:23]):

³Both male and female shall you put out, without the camp shall you put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell (sin unconfessed and lacking Repentance separates one from God; the two, God and sin, cannot dwell together).

⁴And the Children of Israel did so, and put them out without the camp: as the LORD spoke unto Moses, so did the Children of Israel.

LAW OF RESTITUTION

⁵And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

⁶Speak 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 (Verses 5 through 10 concern trespasses against the Lord and against ones fellowman; while all sin is against the Lord, the weight of this Commandment is toward one Believer trespassing against another);

⁷Then 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 has trespassed.

⁸But 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. (In the case of private wrongs, restitution was to be made to the full amount of the injury done, with the addition of one-fifth to that amount. In case of the death of the person who suffered the injury, restitution should be made to his near kinsman. But also, in the event of there being no near kinsman, restitution should be made to the Lord, by giving the stipulated amount to the Priests, in order that it be used for the service of the Sanctuary.)

⁹And every Offering of all the holy things of the Children of Israel, which they bring unto the Priest, shall be his (shall belong to the Priest).

¹⁰And every mans hallowed things shall be his: whatsoever any man gives the Priest, it shall be his.

JEALOUSY

¹¹And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

¹²Speak unto the Children of Israel, and say unto them, If any mans wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him (the sin of adultery),

¹³And 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;

¹⁴And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled (he suspects that adultery has been committed, but has no proof): or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled (his suspicion is wrong):

¹⁵Then 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 (designed, if there in fact be iniquity, that it be exposed).

¹⁶And the Priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD:

¹⁷And 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 (the water of jealousy was a loving provision made by God for the protection of helpless women; however, it had a greater spiritual meaning; the earthen vessel was a Type of the Humanity of Christ; the dust from the floor of the Tabernacle symbolized the misery, hurt, and depravity of the human race; it symbolizes fallen man):

¹⁸And the Priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and uncover the womans 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 causes the curse:

¹⁹And the Priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man has laid with you, and if you have not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of your husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causes the curse:

²⁰But if you have gone aside to another instead of your husband, and if you be defiled, and some man has laid with you beside your husband:

²¹Then the Priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the Priest shall say unto the woman, The LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the LORD does make your thigh to rot, and your belly to swell (the bitter water, if the woman were guilty, would cause tremendous physical infirmities, meaning that she could not have children; if not guilty, there would be no ill effect; no doubt, the Holy Spirit superintended this);

²²And this water that causes the curse shall go into your bowels, to make your belly to swell, and your thigh to rot (providing the woman is guilty): And the woman shall say, Amen, amen. (The truth is, all of humanity was guilty. Jesus drank the bitter water on our behalf, and died on the Cross, even though He was not guilty at all. He took our place, and redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us [Gal. 3:13].)

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

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

²⁵Then the Priest shall take the jealousy Offering out of the womans hand, and shall wave the Offering before the Lord, and offer it upon the Altar (this signified thankfulness to the Lord, that He would ascertain the right or the wrong in this situation; in other words, the Lord would be the Judge):

²⁶And 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 (as always, the Altar and the burning typified what Christ would do on the Cross).

²⁷And when he has 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 causes 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 (in a broader interpretation of this law of jealousies, such portrays the record of Israels shame and sin in departing from the Living God and crucifying her Saviour, which was all blotted out in the bitter waters of Calvary [Col 2:14; Isa. 43:25]).

²⁸And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed (will be able to bear children, meaning that she wouldnt be able to bear children were she guilty).

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

³⁰Or when the spirit of jealousy comes 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.

³¹Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity. (While this was true under the Law, as it could only be true under the Law, it is no longer true presently. Christ has taken our place. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities [Isa. 53:5].)