Numbers 7

Numbers 7:1-10

AND the LORD spake unto Mofes, saying, 2. Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every 1/2 year, and every one 1/2 that hath an offer, and whosoever Isaiah 1/2 defiled by the dead. 3. Both male and female shall ye put out, without the camp shall ye put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell. 4. And the children of Israel did so, and put them out without the camp: as the LORD spake unto Mofes, so did the children of Israel. 5. ¶ And the LORD spake unto Mofes, saying, 6. Speak unto the children of Israel, 7. When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass against the LORD, and that person be guilty; 8. Then they shall confess their sin which they have done: and he shall recompense his trespass with 1/2 the principal thereof, and add unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed. 9. But if the man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompense unto the LORD, even to the priest: beside 1/2 the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him. 10. And every 1/2 offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his. 11. And every man’s hallowed things shall be his: whatsoever any man giveth the priest, it shall be 1/2 his.

VOL. I. We have here,

1. The separation of the unclean from the camp and tabernacle, till the cause of it was removed. Note, (1.) God’s church and people must have no fellowship with the orderly and impure. (2.) Such should be cut off from the visible communion of saints. (3.) If not before, at death the separation will be made, and that final and eternal.

2. The restitution of unjust gain, or fraudulent acquisitions. Though it cover the delinquent with shame, confession must be made; and better take shame before man, than be covered with everlasting confession before man and angels. Atonement to God must be offered, as well as restitution to man, with a fifth part over: if the person were dead, his near kinsman was entitled to it; if he had none, it was the priest’s. Restitution must be made. The poor are now God’s receivers, when the party injured cannot be found. The priest who officiated, was entitled to the hallowed things of the atoning sacrifice: it is fit he who doth the work should have the wages.

3. And the LORD spake unto Mofes, saying, 12. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man’s wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him, 13. And 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; 14. And the spirit of jealously come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled; or if the spirit of jealously come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled; 15. Then 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 jealously, 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 of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water. 18. And the priest 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 jealously offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curle. 19. And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have been with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness it with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curle: 20. But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man hath left with thee beside thine husband: 21. Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; 22. And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, Amen. 23. And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water: 24. And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter. 25. Then the priest shall take the jealously offering out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering before the LORD, and offer it upon the altar. 26. And 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. 27. And when he hath 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 causeth 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 be not defiled, but be clean; then shall she be free, and shall conceive seed. 29. This is the law of jealousy, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and it is defiled; 30. Or when the spirit of jealously cometh 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. 31. Then shall the man be

P p guilt- Before Phil. 1890. Heb. 1. 1. Her thy husband, i. e. Which water the power of his husband. Deut. 1. 1. 1. Phil. heriff. 2. 1. 1. Rev. 2. 1. Note. 13, 14. Rev. 15. 1. Zech. 1. 1. 15.

Briese Ch. A. gultlets from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.

1—27. The law of jealoufy was singular, and could not but have the best effect to preserve that purity so often enjoined.

On suspicion of his wife’s unfaithfulness, where no evidence of the fact appeared, nor other way of discovering the truth, the husband brought her to the priest, with an offering of barley, mourned as the occasion; a quarter of a pint of water was taken from the priest’s laves, in an earthen vessel, and dust of the tabernacle mixed with it. The woman was then preferred before the Lord, her head uncovered, the jealoufy-offering put into her hand, and a solemn adjuration or imprecation was pronounced over her. If, terrified with the just sense of her guilt and danger, the confessed heresy, the was discovered without her dowry, and dismissed. If the profited in her innocence, she replied, Amen; whereupon the curfew were written on a parchment roll, and scraped into the water: then the priest took the jealoufy-offering out of her hand, and having burnt an handful on the altar, as a memorial for good, if innocent, for evil if guilty, for was obliged to drink the water. The immediate and miraculous effects of which appeared, if an adulteress; if innocent, it was a blinding, and made her fruitful: the husband was obliged to make the trial, if he had just suspicion, or would be under the guilt of sinful connivance. From the whole, many useful lessons arise. 2. Let every wife be careful to avoid the least occasion, which may awaken the spirit of jealoufy. 3. Let every husband beware of indulging it: it is a ranker that robs of all peace and rest. 4. Innocence is a sufficient support under the most malignant accusations. 5. We need that to drink, if he hath embittered the waters: the pleasures of sense can make us but a miserable recompense for the curfew of God. 6. The waters of jealoufy are no more, the voice of conscience and the eye of God will speak and see. 7. God brings strangely to light the hidden things of darkness: though the adulterer fayseth, no eye iseth, afterwards his folly is made manifest to the world. 8. Though sinners escape all present censure, or punishment, yet whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.