This is an obscure passage of scripture that describes a type of trial by ordeal. We will read through it, discuss briefly, and then probably never speak of it again; unless you encounter the argument that God not only endorses abortion, he prescribed a method for causing one. Numbers just got more interesting huh?

Numbers 5

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

2 “Command the children of Israel, that every leper is put out of the camp, and every one that has a discharge, and anyone that is defiled by the dead:

3 You shall put out both male and female, outside of the camp; so that they do not defile their camps in the midst of which I dwell.”

4 And the children of Israel did so, and put them outside of the camp: as the LORD spoke to Moses, the children of Israel did.

5 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

6 “Say to the children of Israel ‘When a man or woman commits any sin that men commit, to trespass against the LORD, and that person is guilty;

7 Then they shall confess their sin which they have done: and he shall make restitution, and add to it the fifth part, and give it to him against whom he has wronged. 

8 But if the man has no kinsman to repay the trespass to, let the restitution be paid to the LORD, to his priest; beside the ram of the atonement, by which an atonement shall be made for him.

9 And every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring to the priest, shall be his.

10 Every man’s holy contributions shall be his: whatever any man gives to the priest, it shall be his.’”

11 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

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

13 And a man has sexual relations with her, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and kept close, and she becomes defiled, and there is no witness against her, nor she is caught in the act, 

14 And the spirit of jealousy comes over him, and he is jealous of his wife, because she is defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy comes over him, and heise jealous of his wife, and she is not defiled:

15 Then the man shall bring his wife to 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 on it; 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 the priest shall take some of the dust of the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water:

18 He 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 causes the curse:

19 And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say to 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 free from this bitter water that causes the curse:

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

21 Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say to the woman “The LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the LORD makes your thigh to rot, and your belly to swell;

22 And this water that causes the curse shall go into your bowels, to make your belly swell, and your thigh to rot.” And the woman shall say “Amen, amen.”

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

24 And he shall have 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.

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 on the altar:

26 And the priest shall take a handful of the offering, the memorial, and burn it on the altar, and afterward shall have the woman to drink the water.

27 When he has made her drink the water, then if she has been defiled, and trespassed against her husband, 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.

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

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

30 Or when the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute on her all this law.

31 Then shall the man be free of guilt, and this woman shall bear her guilt.

See also: Numbers 5 in ESV, HCSB, NASB and NIV via Bible Gateway.