Discovery BoxNumbers 6:7 
Context6:7 He must not defile himself even 1 for his father or his mother or his brother or his sister if they die, 2 because the separation 3 for 4 his God is on his head.
Numbers 22:18
Context22:18 Balaam replied 5 to the servants of Balak, “Even if Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I could not transgress the commandment 6 of the Lord my God 7 to do less or more.
Numbers 35:23
Context35:23 or with any stone large enough that a man could die, without seeing him, and throws it at him, and he dies, even though he was not his enemy nor sought his harm,
1 tn The vav (ו) conjunction at the beginning of the clause specifies the cases of corpses that are to be avoided, no matter how painful it might be.
2 tn The construction uses the infinitive construct with the preposition and the suffixed subjective genitive – “in the dying of them” – to form the adverbial clause of time.
sn The Nazirite would defile himself, i.e., ruin his vow, by contacting their corpses. Jesus’ hard saying in Matt 8:22, “let the dead bury their own dead,” makes sense in the light of this passage – Jesus was calling for commitment to himself.
3 tn The word “separation” here is metonymy of adjunct – what is on his head is long hair that goes with the vow.
4 tn The genitive could perhaps be interpreted as possession, i.e., “the vow of his God,” but it seems more likely that an objective genitive would be more to the point.
5 tn Heb “answered and said.”
6 tn Heb “mouth.”
7 sn In the light of subsequent events one should not take too seriously that Balaam referred to Yahweh as his God. He is referring properly to the deity for which he is acting as the agent.
