What Does Numbers 5:15 Mean?
Then the man brings his wife to the priest, and he brings her offering for her, a tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he pours no oil upon it, nor sets frankincense upon it; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of remembrance, bringing crookedness to remembrance.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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 jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance.THE KEY
The barley is not a verdict; it is a memorial that carries jealousy and its unresolved charge into the open.
THE MEANING
A husband’s jealousy places his wife under an accusation that is not yet resolved. The barley offering, with no oil or frankincense, gives that accusation a material form and names its purpose: to bring crookedness into remembrance.
THE ROOT
זִכָּרוֹן
zikkārôn
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r
Remember; call to mind.
The verse uses two forms from the same seed: זִכָּרוֹן (zikkārôn, “memorial”) and מַזְכֶּרֶת (mazkēret, “bringing to remembrance”). The offering is explicitly a mechanism of recall, carrying the accusation into the open rather than treating it as already settled.
ALSO GROWS
zāḵar: Remember; recall.
זָכַר
The phrase “bringing to remembrance” draws on this same root of calling something to mind.
ʾazkārāh: Memorial portion of a grain offering.
אַזְכָּרָה
This related offering term shows that remembrance is built into the grain offering’s ritual language.
קְנָאֹת
qenaʾōt
GROWS FROM
קנא
q-n-ʾ
Be zealous or jealous.
The root קנא (q-n-ʾ, “be zealous or jealous”) names the force driving the offering, not evidence that the charge is true. Its range includes zeal as well as jealousy, while the accusation in this verse remains unresolved.
ALSO GROWS
qinʾāh: Jealousy; zeal.
קִנְאָה
This noun carries the same root range, showing the intensity named in the offering.
qannāʾ: Jealous; zealous.
קַנָּא
This adjective makes the root’s quality explicit without deciding whether the suspicion is justified.
THE PATTERN
A memorial makes what is hidden present before God, whether it is a charge, an act of devotion, or a reminder of sin.
And he brings it to the sons of Aaron, the priests, and the priest takes from it a fistful of its fine flour and of its oil, with all its frankincense, and sends up its remembrance in smoke upon the altar, an offering of fire, a fragrance that settles to the LORD.And when he stretched his gaze upon him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and your acts of compassion have come up as a memorial before God.But in those slain offerings, a reminding of shortcomings is made again each year.THE THREAD
And he brings it to the sons of Aaron, the priests, and the priest takes from it a fistful of its fine flour and of its oil, with all its frankincense, and sends up its remembrance in smoke upon the altar, an offering of fire, a fragrance that settles to the LORD.Numbers calls this a זִכָּרוֹן (zikkārôn, “memorial”) and says it מַזְכֶּרֶת (mazkēret, “brings to remembrance”), both forms from זכר (z-k-r, “remember”). Leviticus 2:2 uses אַזְכָּרָה (ʾazkārāh, “memorial portion”) for the grain offering’s burned portion; the shared root makes remembrance concrete, while Numbers directs it toward crookedness.
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