Numbers 6:3
6:3 he must separate 1 himself from wine and strong drink, he must drink neither vinegar 2 made from wine nor vinegar made from strong drink, nor may he drink any juice 3 of grapes, nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. 4
Numbers 6:15
6:15 and a basket of bread made without yeast, cakes of fine flour mixed with olive oil, wafers made without yeast and smeared with olive oil, and their 5 grain offering and their drink offerings. 6
Numbers 8:4
8:4 This is how the lampstand was made: 7 It was beaten work in gold; 8 from its shaft to its flowers it was beaten work. According to the pattern which the Lord had shown Moses, so he made the lampstand.
1 tn The operative verb now will be the Hiphil of נָזַר (nazar); the consecration to the Lord meant separation from certain things in the world. The first will be wine and strong drink – barley beer (from Akkadian sikaru, a fermented beer). But the second word may be somewhat wider in its application than beer. The Nazirite, then, was to avoid all intoxicants as a sign of his commitment to the Lord. The restriction may have proved a hardship in the daily diet of the one taking the vow, but it spoke a protest to the corrupt religious and social world that used alcohol to excess.
2 tn The “vinegar” (חֹמֶץ, homets) is some kind of drink preparation that has been allowed to go sour.
3 tn This word occurs only here. It may come from the word “to water, to be moist,” and so refer to juice.
4 tn Heb “dried” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).
5 tn The suffixes in the MT are plural in this verse, whereas in v. 17 they are singular. This seems to be a matter of stylistic choice, referring to whomever may be taking the vow.
6 sn The offerings for the termination of the Nazirite vow would not have been inexpensive. This indicates that the person making the short term vow may have had income, or have come from a wealthier section of society. Short term vows had to be considered carefully as this ruling required a good amount of food to be brought.
7 tn The Hebrew text literally has “and this is the work of the lampstand,” but that rendering does not convey the sense that it is describing how it was made.
8 sn The idea is that it was all hammered from a single plate of gold.