Proceeding from this new status of redeemers, the Levites laid down many more ―statutes and judgments‖ in Numbers. They ruled by terror and were ingenious in devising new ways of instilling it; an example is their ―trial of jealousy.‖ If ―the spirit of jealousy‖ came on a man, he was legally obliged (by ―the Lord speaking unto Moses, saying‖) to hale his wife before the Levite, who, at the altar, presented her with a concoction of ―bitter water‖ made by him, saying, ―If no man have lain with thee and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free
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