Bible Journaling: Numbers 5

Numbers 5 is a chapter devoted to purity. It starts off with yet another discussion on skin diseases. The previous one occurred in Leviticus 13. The chapter then rather quickly moves on to jealousy and suspicion about a spouse's fidelity, in particular the woman's fidelity. At first reading this sounds very gender biased, but when one considers how a woman can suffer under the torture of a jealous husband, it forces one to take a second look at this chapter. Such a woman now had recourse to rid herself of her husband's jealousy. There was a way to determine the validity of his accusations. In a Theocracy, the priest's word was law, and such a man would be forced to give the matter a rest afterwards. I can't help but wonder how many modern women would not wish to have the option of such a determination. At the same time, it is also wise to remember that this was not yet a monogamous society and a man could take more than one wife. For this reason, these laws did not apply to the man. There were other laws that regulated hos conduct towards women, though. I kept my journaling on these two pages very simple, mainly using stamps, tape and stickers.

The chapter looks like this in the Inspire Praise Bible.

I treat the pages with Dala Clear Acrylic Gesso.

When dry, the pages look like this.

I inked both pages with a Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad.

I then decided to lift certain words from the passage and to stamp these on the sides of the pages, in the margins. I used an alphabet stamp set from W&M, Tim Holtz Distress Ink and a Chizwick stamp block.

I stamped the words vertically in the margins to make them fit.

The words I stamped, were Purity and Faithful.

I is important to let this ink dry well before continuing.

I then opted to use some glitter lace tape as accents.

This tape pulls away from its backing to reveal a beautiful lace pattern.

I stuck the tape down on the edges of the pages.

My Bible came with a set of stickers, inside an envelope stuck to the back of the Bible.

I coloured these stickers with Mont Marte Dual Tip Adult Colouring Markers.

I would be using some of these stickers in Numbers 5.

The completed layout looks like this in my Bible.

You can watch a short compilation video of the steps above on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/c_U5T9ryS24

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2005,2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. All rights reserved.

Inspire PRAISE South Africa edition copyright 2017 by Christian Art Publishers, PO Box 1599, Vereeniging, 1930, RSA. All rights reserved.

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