What Does Numbers 5:26 Mean?

And the priest takes a fistful of the offering, even its remembrance, and sends it up in smoke upon the altar, and afterward causes the woman to drink the water.

Numbers 5:26 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

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.

THE KEY

Here, “memorial” is something the priest burns before the woman is made to drink: remembrance is enacted before the bodily test.

THE MEANING

You see a portion taken from the offering and burned as its memorial before the woman drinks the water. The act of remembrance and the test imposed on her body stand side by side, with the woman bearing the bodily risk. The verse leaves that tension unresolved.

THE ROOT

אַזְכָּרָתָהּ

’azkārāh

GROWS FROM

ז־כ־ר

Z-K-R

Remember, recall, bring to mind.

The Hebrew word names a portion of the offering as a memorial, so remembrance here is material and enacted, not only something held in thought. That portion is burned before the woman drinks, placing remembrance immediately before the bodily test.

ALSO GROWS

zākar: Remember, call to mind.

זָכַר

This is the root verb; it connects the burned portion to the act of remembering.

zikkārôn: Remembrance, memorial.

זִכָּרוֹן

This related noun shows how the root can name a memorial made to hold something in remembrance.

’azkārāh: Memorial portion of an offering.

אַזְכָּרָה

This is the word used in the verse: remembrance takes the form of a portion burned on the altar.

THE PATTERN

Remembrance is given a material or public form that carries offerings, names, or acts before God.

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.

Leviticus 2:2 · SDVA portion of the offering is burned on the altar as a memorial, as in the verse under study.

And you will set the two stones on the shoulders of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the children of Israel, and Aaron will carry their names before the LORD on his two shoulders, for a remembrance.

Exodus 28:12 · SDVThe names of the people are physically carried before the LORD as a memorial.

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.

Acts 10:4 · SDVPrayers and alms are described as coming before God as a memorial.

THE THREAD

May he remember all your offerings, and make your rising offering rich. Selah.

Psalm 20:3 · SDV

“Remember” translates ⁨זָכַר⁩ (zākar), the root of the memorial word in Numbers 5:26. In Psalm 20:3, remembrance is asked for in connection with offerings; in Numbers, a portion of the offering becomes the memorial itself.

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