Numbers 6:1-21 comments: the law of the Nazarite

 

Numbers 6:1 ¶  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2  Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD: 3  He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. 4  All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk. 5  All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. 6  All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body. 7  He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration of his God is upon his head. 8  All the days of his separation he is holy unto the LORD. 9  And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it. 10  And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: 11  And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and make an atonement for him, for that he sinned by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day. 12  And he shall consecrate unto the LORD the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a trespass offering: but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled. 13  And this is the law of the Nazarite, when the days of his separation are fulfilled: he shall be brought unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: 14  And he shall offer his offering unto the LORD, one he lamb of the first year without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for peace offerings, 15  And a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and wafers of unleavened bread anointed with oil, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings. 16  And the priest shall bring them before the LORD, and shall offer his sin offering, and his burnt offering: 17  And he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, with the basket of unleavened bread: the priest shall offer also his meat offering, and his drink offering. 18  And the Nazarite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings. 19  And the priest shall take the sodden shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazarite, after the hair of his separation is shaven: 20  And the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the LORD: this is holy for the priest, with the wave breast and heave shoulder: and after that the Nazarite may drink wine. 21  This is the law of the Nazarite who hath vowed, and of his offering unto the LORD for his separation, beside that that his hand shall get: according to the vow which he vowed, so he must do after the law of his separation.

 

Consider the possibility that this is not the beginning of the Nazirite vow but moreso God reinstating and refining the requirements to suit His plans for the Hebrews. Matthew Henry pointed out how Nazirites become so as ordained by God as in the case of Samson.

Judges 13:5  For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

 

This is also the case of John the Baptist.

 

Luke 1:15  For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.

 

They could be dedicated by a parent’s vow.

 

1Samuel 1:11  And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.

 

Henry also believed that the vow of the woman in 30:3 referred to this dedication. Nazirites were separated to God and the fact that this was so was considered a blessing to Israel by God.

Amos 2:11  And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD.

 

Nazirites were respected and compared to unblemished and pure things.

 

Lamentations 4:7  Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:

 

Paul, under the influence of James and the elders at Jerusalem in Acts 21, entered into a similar dedication although in the same chapter Gentile Christians are not to commit themselves to such a requirement. It is striking that Paul, who in Galatians, dismissed Jewish circumcision as necessary for Christians and who chastised them for regarding it as proof of their relationship to Christ, submitted himself to observation of Jewish rituals of the Law given to Moses.

Galatians 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 26  For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

 

The end of this passage explains the ritual at the end of the Nazirite’s term of dedication, at the end of the time in which they had dedicated themselves. Their head was shaved and they could drink wine as the ceremonial end of their dedication.

I will discuss Samson’s lifelong dedication by his parents when you and I get to Judges.