Discovery BoxNumbers 6:1-12 
Context6:1 1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: 6:2 “Speak to the Israelites, and tell them, ‘When either a man or a woman 2 takes a special vow, 3 to take a vow 4 as a Nazirite, 5 to separate 6 himself to the Lord, 6:3 he must separate 7 himself from wine and strong drink, he must drink neither vinegar 8 made from wine nor vinegar made from strong drink, nor may he drink any juice 9 of grapes, nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. 10 6:4 All the days of his separation he must not eat anything that is produced by the grapevine, from seed 11 to skin. 12
6:5 “‘All the days of the vow 13 of his separation no razor may be used on his head 14 until the time 15 is fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord. He will be holy, 16 and he must let 17 the locks of hair on his head grow long.
6:6 “‘All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he must not contact 18 a dead body. 19 6:7 He must not defile himself even 20 for his father or his mother or his brother or his sister if they die, 21 because the separation 22 for 23 his God is on his head. 6:8 All the days of his separation he must be holy to the Lord.
6:9 “‘If anyone dies very suddenly 24 beside him and he defiles 25 his consecrated head, 26 then he must shave his head on the day of his purification – on the seventh day he must shave it. 6:10 On the eighth day he is to bring 27 two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the entrance to the tent of meeting. 6:11 Then the priest will offer one for a purification offering 28 and the other 29 as a burnt offering, 30 and make atonement 31 for him, because of his transgression 32 in regard to the corpse. So he must reconsecrate 33 his head on that day. 6:12 He must rededicate 34 to the Lord the days of his separation and bring a male lamb in its first year as a reparation offering, 35 but the former days will not be counted 36 because his separation 37 was defiled.
1 sn This chapter can be divided into five sections: The vow is described in vv. 1-8, then the contingencies for defilement are enumerated in vv. 9-12, then there is a discussion of discharging the vows in vv. 13-20, and then a summary in v. 21; after this is the high priestly blessing (vv. 22-27). For information on the vow, see G. B. Gray, “The Nazirite,” JTS 1 (1899-1900): 201-11; Z. Weisman, “The Biblical Nazirite, Its Types and Roots,” Tarbiz 36 (1967): 207-20; and W. Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament (OTL), 1:303-6.
2 tn The formula is used here again: “a man or a woman – when he takes.” The vow is open to both men and women.
3 tn The vow is considered special in view of the use of the verb יַפְלִא (yafli’), the Hiphil imperfect of the verb “to be wonderful, extraordinary.”
4 tn The construction uses the infinitive construct followed by the cognate accusative: “to vow a vow.” This intensifies the idea that the vow is being taken carefully.
5 tn The name of the vow is taken from the verb that follows; נָזַר (nazar) means “to consecrate oneself,” and so the Nazirite is a consecrated one. These are folks who would make a decision to take an oath for a time or for a lifetime to be committed to the
6 tn The form of the verb is an Hiphil infinitive construct, forming the wordplay and explanation for the name Nazirite. The Hiphil is here an internal causative, having the meaning of “consecrate oneself” or just “consecrate to the
7 tn The operative verb now will be the Hiphil of נָזַר (nazar); the consecration to the
8 tn The “vinegar” (חֹמֶץ, homets) is some kind of drink preparation that has been allowed to go sour.
9 tn This word occurs only here. It may come from the word “to water, to be moist,” and so refer to juice.
10 tn Heb “dried” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).
11 tn This word also is rare, occurring only here.
12 sn Here is another hapax legomenon, a word only found here. The word seems linked to the verb “to be clear,” and so may mean the thin skin of the grape. The reason for the strictness with these two words in this verse is uncertain. We know the actual meanings of the words, and the combination must form a merism here, meaning no part of the grape could be eaten. Abstaining from these common elements of food was to be a mark of commitment to the
13 tc The parallel expression in v. 8 (“all the days of his separation”) lacks the word “vow.” This word is also absent in v. 5 in a few medieval Hebrew manuscripts. The presence of the word in v. 5 may be due to dittography.
14 sn There is an interesting parallel between this prohibition and the planting of trees. They could not be pruned or trimmed for three years, but allowed to grow free (Lev 20:23). Only then could the tree be cut and the fruit eaten. The natural condition was to be a sign that it was the
15 tn Heb “days.”
16 tn The word “holy” here has the sense of distinct, different, set apart.
17 tn The Piel infinitive absolute functions as a verb in this passage; the Piel carries the sense of “grow lengthy” or “let grow long.”
18 tn The Hebrew verb is simply “enter, go,” no doubt with the sense of go near.
19 tn The Hebrew has נֶפֶשׁ מֵת (nefesh met), literally a “dead person.” But since the word נֶפֶשׁ can also be used for animals, the restriction would be for any kind of corpse. Death was very much a part of the fallen world, and so for one so committed to the
20 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.
21 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.
22 tn The word “separation” here is metonymy of adjunct – what is on his head is long hair that goes with the vow.
23 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.
24 tn The construction uses the imperfect tense followed by the infinitive absolute, יָמוּת מֵת (yamut met). Because the verb is in a conditional clause, the emphasis that is to be given through the infinitive must stress the contingency. The point is “if someone dies – unexpectedly.” The next words underscore the suddenness of this.
25 tn The verb is the Piel perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive; it continues the idea within the conditional clause.
26 sn The expression is figurative for the vow that he took; the figure is the metonymy because the reference to the head is a reference to the long hair that symbolizes the oath.
27 tn The imperfect tense in this verse is still instructional rather than a simple future. The translations can vary, but the point that it is directive must be caught.
28 tn The traditional translation of חַטָּאת (khatta’t) is “sin offering,” but it is more precise to render it “purification offering” (as with the other names of sacrifices) to show the outcome, not the cause of the offering (see Lev 4). Besides, this offering was made for ritual defilements (for which no confession was required) as well as certain sins (for which a confession of sin was required). This offering restored the person to the ritual state of purity by purifying the area into which he would be going.
29 tn The repetition of “the one…and the one” forms the distributive sense of “the one…and the other.”
30 tn The burnt offering (Lev 1) reflects the essence of atonement: By this sacrifice the worshiper was completely surrendering to God, and God was completely accepting the worshiper.
31 tn The verb וְכִפֶּר (vÿkhipper) is the Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive. The meaning of the verb is “to expiate, pacify, atone.” It refers to the complete removal of the barrier of fellowship between the person and God, and the total acceptance of that person into his presence. The idea of “to cover,” often linked to this meaning, is derived from a homonym, and not from this word and its usage.
32 tn The verb “to sin” has a wide range of meanings, beginning with the idea of “missing the way or the goal.” In view of the nature of this case – the prescribed ritual without confession – the idea is more that he failed to keep the vow’s stipulations in this strange circumstance than that he committed intentional sin.
33 tn The verb simply means “to consecrate,” but because it refers to a vow that was interrupted, it must here mean to “reconsecrate.”
34 tn The same idea is to be found now in the use of the word נָזַר (nazar), which refers to a recommitment after the vow was interrupted.
35 tn The necessity of bringing the reparation offering was due to the reinstatement into the vow that had been interrupted.
36 tn Heb “will fall”; KJV “shall be lost”; ASV, NASB, NRSV “shall be void.”
37 tc The similar expression in v. 9 includes the word “head” (i.e., “his consecrated head”). The LXX includes this word in v. 12 as well.
