Numberschapter 5
31 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Original Language
Numbers 5— Hebrew word study · with the Hebrew tradition
In Jewish life
Jewish practice and Jewish teaching both have something to say about Numbers 5. Three things follow: where it is read, what is done because of it, and how the rabbis have taught it. The purpose is to inform a Christian reader what Jews believe and how Judaism was and is practised.
The reading
Weekly portion 35 of 54
נָשֹׂא Nasso, Numbers 4:21 to 7:89
Read with it: Judges 13:2 to 13:25.
The verse numbers here are the ones a Hebrew Bible carries, which differ from an English Bible by a verse or two in several places. The Sephardi reading is named only where this site records a difference; communities vary beyond what is listed. What these books are, and how a Christian reader meets them →
Where the rabbis cite this chapter
4 rows sit beside their verses in the text, on 4 verses of this chapter. No row that speaks to the chapter as a whole is recorded. Every quote links to its full source.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria (sefaria.org); excerpts follow each version’s license, and every passage opens at its source.
How to read a word below: the Hebrewword, then how it sounds, then what it means, then its number in Strong’s concordance, a widely used lookup this site follows (H for Hebrew and Aramaic, G for Greek). Square brackets hold a word the English supplies that the Hebrew does not, angle brackets mark the Hebrew’s own grammatical elements that English renders as separate words, and the mark ס or פ is where the Hebrew manuscripts end a paragraph.
Put the unclean outside the camp1
Numbers 5:1· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:2· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:3· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:4· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Confess it, restore it, add a fifth5
Numbers 5:5· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:6· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:7· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:8· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:9· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:10· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Onkelos Numbers 5:10
A [ tenth of ] man’s sacred objects shall be his; whatever a man gives to the kohein, shall be his.
Read it in full at Sefaria · Metsudah Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009 [with Onkelos translation]
Bitter water for a jealous husband11
Numbers 5:11· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:12· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:13· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:14· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Rashi on Numbers 5:14
ועבר עליו AND [THE SPIRIT OF JEALOUSY] COME UPON HIM — i.e., had come upon him before her seclusion with the man.
Read it in full at Sefaria · Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934
Numbers 5:15· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Ramban on Numbers 5:15
HE SHALL POUR NO OIL UPON IT — “so that her offering shall not be enriched, for oil is called light, whereas she acted in darkness. NOR SHALL HE PUT FRANKINCENSE THEREON, for the matriarchs are compared to frankincense, as it is said, to the hill of frankincense.
Read it in full at Sefaria · Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976
Numbers 5:16· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:17· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Rashi on Numbers 5:17
מים קדשים HOLY WATER — i.e., water that has become holy through being in the laver. — The water was taken from the laver because that was made of the copper mirrors of the women who had gathered (Exodus:8) [at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting] and this woman deviated from their chaste ways. Because they had cherished their husbands’ love in Egypt (cf.
Read it in full at Sefaria · Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934
Numbers 5:18· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:19· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:20· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:21· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:22· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:23· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:24· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:25· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:26· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:27· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:28· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:29· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Numbers 5:30· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
