Single lesson
Keeping the Camp Holy
Numbers 5:1–6:21
Numbers 5:1–6:21 gathers laws about uncleanness, guilt, jealousy in marriage, and a Nazirite vow. It is not a story episode. The passage shows ordered ways Israel was to guard holiness in the camp and in personal vows.
Before you teach
Yahweh speaks to Moses in a series of instructions. The passage moves in order from removing sources of uncleanness, to confession and restitution, to a jealousy procedure where there is no witness, and then to the Nazirite vow for a man or a woman who separates to Yahweh.
Explain the central teaching of Keeping the Camp Holy, using two details from the reading. This passage shows that Israel’s life before Yahweh included rules for uncleanness, making wrongs right, a jealousy procedure where there is no witness, and voluntary separation to him.
Welcome: Keeping the Camp Holy
5 minIntroduce “Keeping the Camp Holy” and locate Numbers 5:1–6:21. This passage shows that Israel’s life before Yahweh included rules for uncleanness, making wrongs right, a jealousy procedure where there is no witness, and voluntary separation to him. Invite each learner to name a detail or question they will listen for.
Numbers 5:1, Numbers 5:27, Numbers 6:21
Read and explain the passage
12 minYahweh commands that people with certain uncleanness be put outside the camp: a leper, a person with a discharge, and one made unclean by a corpse. This applies to both male and female. The reason given is that the camp must not be defiled, because Yahweh dwells in its midst. Israel obeys.
After the restitution law, the passage adds that the heave offerings of the holy things presented to the priest shall be his. What a man gives the priest belongs to the priest. This brief instruction sits between restitution and the jealousy law and should be read as part of the passage’s order.
A Nazirite vow may be made by either a man or a woman to separate to Yahweh. During the vow, the person avoids grape products, lets the hair grow, and stays away from a dead body. If defiled, the days restart. When the vow is fulfilled, offerings are brought, the hair is shaved, and afterward wine may be drunk.
Read the selected verses together, pausing at “Keeping the Camp Holy”. Use the source reading below and check the explanation against the words of the passage.
Numbers 5:2, Numbers 5:3, Numbers 5:4, Numbers 5:9, Numbers 5:10, Numbers 6:2, Numbers 6:3, Numbers 6:5, Numbers 6:6, Numbers 6:12, Numbers 6:13, Numbers 6:18, Numbers 6:20, Numbers 6:21
Discuss the details and their meaning
8 minUse the three questions below. Begin with “Why were certain unclean people put outside the camp?” and allow time to find the supporting verses. This passage shows that Israel’s life before Yahweh included rules for uncleanness, making wrongs right, a jealousy procedure where there is no witness, and voluntary separation to him. Ask learners to explain which details support their answer and to identify a question they would like to explore further.
Numbers 5:3, Numbers 5:7, Numbers 5:8, Numbers 6:3, Numbers 6:5, Numbers 6:6, Numbers 6:8
Make and respond: Instruction and context chart
12 minWork on “Keeping the Camp Holy: Instruction and context chart”. Follow the materials and steps below, using “Keeping the Camp Holy” as reading headings. Each learner should include at least two accurate details and their verse references. Share one observation from the finished sheet and explain how it connects with the central teaching.
Numbers 5:1, Numbers 5:27, Numbers 6:21
Closing: return to Keeping the Camp Holy
3 minRevisit Numbers 5:1–6:21. Invite a learner to summarise what the group has learned about Keeping the Camp Holy and another to support the summary with a verse. Give learners a moment to complete their response sheet. They can share a question or, if appropriate for the group, join the optional prayer.
Numbers 5:1, Numbers 5:27, Numbers 6:21
Questions to explore
Why were certain unclean people put outside the camp?
Use the reason stated in the text: the camp was not to be defiled because Yahweh dwelt in its midst.
Numbers 5:3
What does the guilty person have to do besides confessing the sin?
Look for the repayment details, including the added amount and what happens if there is no kinsman.
Numbers 5:7, Numbers 5:8
What details mark the Nazirite’s separation to Yahweh?
Name the specific restrictions and signs the passage lists, not a general idea of dedication.
Numbers 6:3, Numbers 6:5, Numbers 6:6, Numbers 6:8
Make, think or respond
Keeping the Camp Holy: Instruction and context chart
What you’ll need
- plain paper or card
- pencils or pens
- a Bible or the source reading on this page
Try it together
- Fold a sheet into three panels or draw three columns. Label them “Who is addressed?”, “What is required?”, “What reason or purpose is given?”.
- Read Numbers 5:1–6:21. Use “Keeping the Camp Holy” as your reading headings and add a short quotation or detail with its verse reference to each panel.
- Compare your notes with a partner. Check that every quotation is accurate and every conclusion has support in the passage.
- Under the chart, distinguish instructions in their original setting from an application you could discuss today.
The finished sheet keeps the details of Keeping the Camp Holy connected to their Bible references and gives the group a way to explain what they noticed.
Adapt for your group
- For learners who need more support, prepare the reading headings “Keeping the Camp Holy” and let them match short quotations to the correct heading.
- For confident readers, compare two sections of Numbers 5:1–6:21. Ask for a written explanation with two supporting references and one question that the text leaves open.
An optional closing prayer
“God, help us listen carefully as we read Numbers 5:1–6:21. Help us understand what we have read, ask thoughtful questions and respond with care for others. Amen.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Numbers 5
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, everyone who has a discharge, and whoever is unclean by a corpse.
3 You shall put both male and female outside of the camp so that they don’t defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.”
4 The children of Israel did so, and put them outside of the camp; as Yahweh spoke to Moses, so the children of Israel did.
5 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
6 “Speak to the children of Israel: ‘When a man or woman commits any sin that men commit, so as to trespass against Yahweh, and that soul is guilty,
7 then he shall confess his sin which he has done; and he shall make restitution for his guilt in full, add to it the fifth part of it, and give it to him in respect of whom he has been guilty.
8 But if the man has no kinsman to whom restitution may be made for the guilt, the restitution for guilt which is made to Yahweh shall be the priest’s, in addition to the ram of the atonement, by which atonement shall be made for him.
9 Every heave offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they present to the priest, shall be his.
10 Every man’s holy things shall be his; whatever any man gives the priest, it shall be his.’ ”
11 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
12 “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them: ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him,
13 and a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband and this is kept concealed, and she is defiled, there is no witness against her, and she isn’t taken in the act;
14 and the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife and she is defiled; or if the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife and she isn’t defiled;
15 then the man shall bring his wife to the priest, and shall bring her offering for her: one tenth of an ephah of barley meal. He shall pour no oil on it, nor put frankincense on it, for it is a meal offering of jealousy, a meal offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to memory.
16 The priest shall bring her near, and set her before Yahweh.
17 The priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and the priest shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water.
18 The priest shall set the woman before Yahweh, and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose, and put the meal offering of memorial in her hands, which is the meal offering of jealousy. The priest shall have in his hand the water of bitterness that brings a curse.
19 The priest shall cause her to take an oath and shall tell the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you haven’t gone aside to uncleanness, being under your husband’s authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings a curse.
20 But if you have gone astray, being under your husband’s authority, and if you are defiled, and some man has lain with you besides your husband—”
21 then the priest shall cause the woman to swear with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall tell the woman, “May Yahweh make you a curse and an oath among your people, when Yahweh allows your thigh to fall away, and your body to swell;
22 and this water that brings a curse will go into your bowels, and make your body swell, and your thigh fall away.” The woman shall say, “Amen, Amen.”
23 “ ‘The priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall wipe them into the water of bitterness.
24 He shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that causes the curse; and the water that causes the curse shall enter into her and become bitter.
25 The priest shall take the meal offering of jealousy out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the meal offering before Yahweh, and bring it to the altar.
26 The priest shall take a handful of the meal offering, as its memorial portion, and burn it on the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water.
27 When he has made her drink the water, then it shall happen, if she is defiled and has committed a trespass against her husband, that the water that causes the curse will enter into her and become bitter, and her body will swell, and her thigh will fall away; and the woman will be a curse among her people.
28 If the woman isn’t defiled, but is clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive offspring.
29 “ ‘This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, being under her husband, goes astray, and is defiled,
30 or when the spirit of jealousy comes on a man, and he is jealous of his wife; then he shall set the woman before Yahweh, and the priest shall execute on her all this law.
31 The man shall be free from iniquity, and that woman shall bear her iniquity.’ ”
Numbers 6
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them: ‘When either man or woman shall make a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to Yahweh,
3 he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of fermented drink, neither shall he drink any juice of grapes, nor eat fresh grapes or dried.
4 All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is made of the grapevine, from the seeds even to the skins.
5 “ ‘All the days of his vow of separation no razor shall come on his head, until the days are fulfilled in which he separates himself to Yahweh. He shall be holy. He shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow long.
6 “ ‘All the days that he separates himself to Yahweh he shall not go near a dead body.
7 He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head.
8 All the days of his separation he is holy to Yahweh.
9 “ ‘If any man dies very suddenly beside him, and he defiles the head of his separation, then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing. On the seventh day he shall shave it.
10 On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the door of the Tent of Meeting.
11 The priest shall offer one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned by reason of the dead, and shall make his head holy that same day.
12 He shall separate to Yahweh the days of his separation, and shall bring a male lamb a year old for a trespass offering; but the former days shall be void, because his separation was defiled.
13 “ ‘This is the law of the Nazirite: when the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall be brought to the door of the Tent of Meeting,
14 and he shall offer his offering to Yahweh: one male lamb a year old without defect for a burnt offering, one ewe lamb a year old without defect for a sin offering, one ram without defect for peace offerings,
15 a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil with their meal offering and their drink offerings.
16 The priest shall present them before Yahweh, and shall offer his sin offering and his burnt offering.
17 He shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings to Yahweh, with the basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall offer also its meal offering and its drink offering.
18 The Nazirite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the Tent of Meeting, take the hair of the head of his separation, and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace offerings.
19 The priest shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram, one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them on the hands of the Nazirite after he has shaved the head of his separation;
20 and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before Yahweh. They are holy for the priest, together with the breast that is waved and the thigh that is offered. After that the Nazirite may drink wine.
21 “ ‘This is the law of the Nazirite who vows and of his offering to Yahweh for his separation, in addition to that which he is able to afford. According to his vow which he vows, so he must do after the law of his separation.’ ”
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.