Numbers 5:26

Study note

Setting — The priest executes a ritual step for a woman suspected of adultery, acting after waving the grain offering and before administering the test water. The instruction occurs within the Mosaic law's procedure for investigating marital unfaithfulness.

The words — The priest takes a handful (קָמַץ, qāmaṣ) of the grain offering (מִנְחָה, minḥāh) as its memorial portion (אַזְכָּרָתָהּ, ʾazkārātāh) and causes it to smoke (הִקְטִיר, hiqṭîr) upon the altar. These terms designate the ritual act of preserving and burning a specific portion of the offering.

The thread — This ritual mirrors the grain offering regulations in Leviticus 2:2, Leviticus 2:9, and Leviticus 5:12, where the priest similarly removes a handful as a memorial portion to burn on the altar. The practice establishes a consistent pattern of offering preservation across Israelite worship.

Why it lands — The text commands a specific sequence of ritual actions that must be completed before the woman drinks the water. Readers observe how prescribed physical acts precede the administration of the test's outcome.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.