 This offering is required to be placed in the wife's hands, and is literally described as "her offering for her"; scholars think that it is the man's offering, in relation to the ordeal of his wife, and that her holding of it is merely symbolic of this.The offering specified is one tenth of an ephah of barley meal, unaccompanied by oil or frankincense; this is the cheaper type of flour, unlike the flour specified for all other biblical sacrifices.The specification is now thought to be a rare survival of an earlier period, in which there was no restriction on the types of flour which could be used for sacrifices, although the Mishnah argues that it was a reference to the "bestial" nature of adultery, coarse flour being the "food of beasts".