🔢WEB · Numbers 5:15
What does Numbers 5:15 mean?
"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."
— Numbers 5:15 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them: ‘If any man’s wife goes astray, and is unfaithful to him,
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, and there is no witness against her, and she isn’t taken in the act;
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:
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.
The priest shall bring her near, and set her before Yahweh;
and the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water.
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.
Explanation
Numbers 5:15 describes a specific step in a ritual procedure for a husband who suspects his wife of unfaithfulness but has no witnesses or proof. He is to bring her before the priest along with an offering of one tenth of an ephah of barley meal — a small, coarse, and relatively cheap grain offering. Unlike typical grain offerings described elsewhere in Leviticus, this one is to have no oil poured on it and no frankincense added. Oil symbolized joy, blessing, and richness, while frankincense represented a pleasing fragrance offered to God. The absence of both marks this offering as somber and unpleasant rather than celebratory.
This verse sits within the larger passage of Numbers 5:11-31, known as the "law of jealousy" or the trial by ordeal for a suspected adulteress, given through Moses to the Israelites during their wilderness wanderings. This law addressed a real social problem: what happens when a husband suspects his wife of infidelity but cannot prove it, and no other legal remedy exists? Ancient Near Eastern law codes commonly included similar ordeal procedures, but Israel's version was unique in placing the process entirely under priestly supervision and divine judgment rather than human accusation or violence. The woman was not condemned by her husband's suspicion alone; instead, the matter was brought before God through a structured ritual, and only actual guilt, revealed through the ordeal that follows in the passage, would bring consequences.
Theologically, the plain barley meal, stripped of oil and frankinc
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