Numbers 5:15

Then, she persisting in her denial, and her husband requiring her submission to this way of trial. Her offering was partly because none were to appear before God empty, Exodus 23:15; partly, by way of solemn appeal to God, whom hereby she desired to judge between her and her husband; and partly, by way of atonement to appease God, who had for her sins stirred up her husband against her, and sent an evil spirit between them. See 1 Samuel 26:19. No oil nor frankincense, both because it was a kind of sin-offering, from which these were excluded, Leviticus 5:11, and to testify, her sorrowful sense of the hand of God, and of her husband's displeasure, and because she came thither as a delinquent, or one suspected of delinquency, and under an ill fame, and unpleasing both to God and men; as one that wanted that grace and amiableness and joy which oil signified, and that acceptance with God which frankincense designed, Psalms 141:2. Bringing iniquity to remembrance; both to God, before whom she appeared as a sinner, and to her own conscience, if she were guilty, and, if she were not guilty of this, yet it reminded her of her other sins, for which this might be a punishment.