Numbers 5:15
Context5:15 then 1 the man must bring his wife to the priest, and he must bring the offering required for her, one tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he must not pour olive oil on it or put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of suspicion, 2 a grain offering for remembering, 3 for bringing 4 iniquity to remembrance.
Numbers 5:18
Context5:18 Then the priest will have the woman stand before the Lord, uncover the woman’s head, and put the grain offering for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of suspicion. The priest will hold in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse. 5
Numbers 10:10
Context10:10 “Also in the time when you rejoice, such as 6 on your appointed festivals or 7 at the beginnings of your months, you must blow with your trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, so that they may 8 become 9 a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lord your God.”
Numbers 16:40
Context16:40 It was a memorial for the Israelites, that no outsider who is not a descendant of 10 Aaron should approach to burn incense before the Lord, that he might not become like Korah and his company – just as the Lord had spoken by the authority 11 of Moses.
Numbers 31:54
Context31:54 So Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from the commanders of thousands and commanders 12 of hundreds and brought it into the tent of meeting as a memorial 13 for the Israelites before the Lord.


[5:15] 1 tn All the conditions have been laid down now for the instruction to begin – if all this happened, then this is the procedure to follow.
[5:15] 2 tn The Hebrew word is “jealousy,” which also would be an acceptable translation here. But since the connotation is that suspicion has been raised about the other person, “suspicion” seems to be a better rendering in this context.
[5:15] 3 tn The word “remembering” is זִכָּרוֹן (zikkaron); the meaning of the word here is not so much “memorial,” which would not communicate much, but the idea of bearing witness before God concerning the charges. The truth would come to light through this ritual, and so the attestation would stand. This memorial would bring the truth to light. It was a somber occasion, and so no sweet smelling additives were placed on the altar.
[5:15] 4 tn The final verbal form, מַזְכֶּרֶת (mazkeret), explains what the memorial was all about – it was causing iniquity to be remembered.
[5:18] 5 tn The expression has been challenged. The first part, “bitter water,” has been thought to mean “water of contention” (so NEB), but this is not convincing. It has some support in the versions which read “contention” and “testing,” no doubt trying to fit the passage better. N. H. Snaith (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 129) suggests from an Arabic word that it was designed to cause an abortion – but that would raise an entirely different question, one of who the father of a child was. And that has not been introduced here. The water was “bitter” in view of the consequences it held for her if she was proven to be guilty. That is then enforced by the wordplay with the last word, the Piel participle הַמְאָרֲרִים (ham’ararim). The bitter water, if it convicted her, would pronounce a curse on her. So she was literally holding her life in her hands.
[10:10] 9 tn The conjunction may be taken as explicative or epexegetical, and so rendered “namely; even; that is,” or it may be taken as emphatic conjunction, and translated “especially.”
[10:10] 10 tn The vav (ו) is taken here in its alternative use and translated “or.”
[10:10] 11 tn The form is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. After the instruction imperfects, this form could be given the same nuance, or more likely, subordinated as a purpose or result clause.
[10:10] 12 tn The verb “to be” (הָיָה, hayah) has the meaning “to become” when followed by the preposition lamed (ל).
[16:40] 13 tn Heb “from the seed of.”
[31:54] 17 tn The Hebrew text does not repeat the word “commanders” here, but it is implied.
[31:54] 18 tn The purpose of the offering was to remind the