The Law of the Nazirite

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When either a man or woman [a]consecrates an offering to take the vow of a Nazirite, (A)to separate himself to the Lord, (B)he shall separate himself from wine and similar drink; he shall drink neither vinegar made from wine nor vinegar made from similar drink; neither shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. All the days of his [b]separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, from seed to skin.

‘All the days of the vow of his separation no (C)razor shall come upon his head; until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. Then he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. All the days that he separates himself to the Lord (D)he shall not go near a dead body. (E)He shall not [c]make himself unclean even for his father or his mother, for his brother or his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head. (F)All the days of his separation he shall be holy to the Lord.

‘And if anyone dies very suddenly beside him, and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall (G)shave his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it. 10 Then (H)on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting; 11 and the priest shall offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned in regard to the corpse; and he shall sanctify his head that same day. 12 He shall consecrate to the Lord the days of his separation, and bring a male lamb in its first year (I)as a trespass offering; but the former days shall be [d]lost, because his separation was defiled.

13 ‘Now this is the law of the Nazirite: (J)When the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall be brought to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 14 And he shall present his offering to the Lord: one male lamb in its first year without blemish as a burnt offering, one ewe lamb in its first year without blemish (K)as a sin offering, one ram without blemish (L)as a peace offering, 15 a basket of unleavened bread, (M)cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, unleavened wafers (N)anointed with oil, and their grain offering with their (O)drink offerings.

16 ‘Then the priest shall bring them before the Lord and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering; 17 and he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread; the priest shall also offer its grain offering and its drink offering. 18 (P)Then the Nazirite shall shave his consecrated head at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offering.

19 ‘And the priest shall take the (Q)boiled shoulder of the ram, one (R)unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and (S)put them upon the hands of the Nazirite after he has shaved his consecrated hair, 20 and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord; (T)they are holy for the priest, together with the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering. After that the Nazirite may drink wine.’

21 “This is the law of the Nazirite who vows to the Lord the offering for his separation, and besides that, whatever else his hand is able to provide; according to the vow which he takes, so he must do according to the law of his separation.”

The Priestly Blessing

22 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them:

24 “The Lord (U)bless you and (V)keep you;
25 The Lord (W)make His face shine upon you,
And (X)be gracious to you;
26 (Y)The Lord [e]lift up His countenance upon you,
And (Z)give you peace.” ’

27 (AA)“So they shall [f]put My name on the children of Israel, and (AB)I will bless them.”

Footnotes

  1. Numbers 6:2 Or makes a difficult vow
  2. Numbers 6:4 Separation as a Nazirite
  3. Numbers 6:7 By touching a dead body
  4. Numbers 6:12 void
  5. Numbers 6:26 Look upon you with favor
  6. Numbers 6:27 invoke

Rules Concerning Nazirites

Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the Israelites[a] and say to them, ‘When a man or a woman takes a special vow, a vow of a Nazirite,[b] to keep separate for Yahweh, he will abstain from wine and fermented drink; he will not drink wine vinegar or vinegar of fermented drink; he will not drink the fruit juice of grapes or eat fresh or dry grapes. All the days of his separation[c] you will not eat from anything that is made from the grapevine, from sour grapes to the skin of grapes.

“‘All the days of the vow of his separation a razor will not pass over his head. Until fulfilling the days that he separated himself to Yahweh he will be holy and grow long the locks of the hair of his head.

“‘All the days of keeping himself separated for Yahweh he will not go to a person who is dead; for even his father, mother, brother, or sister he will not make himself unclean by their death,[d] because the separation to his God is on his head. He will be holy for Yahweh all the days of his separation.[e]

“‘If someone dies suddenly and makes the head of his separation[f] unclean, he will shave off the hair of his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he will shave it off. 10 On the eighth day he will bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons[g] to the priest by the doorway of the tent of assembly, 11 and the priest will offer one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering, and he will make atonement for him because he sinned concerning the corpse. He will consecrate his head on that day. 12 He will rededicate to Yahweh the days of his separation[h] and bring a ram-lamb in its first year[i] as a guilt offering. The former days of his vow will fall away because his separation was defiled.

13 “‘This is the regulation of the Nazirite for the day of the fulfilling of the days of his separation: one will bring him to the doorway of the tent of the assembly. 14 He will present his offering to Yahweh, one ram-lamb in its first year[j] without defect as a burnt offering, and one ewe-lamb in its first year[k] without defect as a sin offering, and one ram without defect as a fellowship offering; 15 and a basket of unleavened bread, finely milled flour of ring-shaped bread cakes mixed with oil, and wafers of unleavened bread smeared with oil, and their grain offering and their libations. 16 The priest will present before Yahweh[l] and offer his sin offering, his burnt offering; 17 he will offer a ram as a sacrifice of a fellowship offering to Yahweh, in addition to the basket of the unleavened bread; the priest will offer his grain offering and his libation. 18 The Nazirite will shave off the hair of his consecrated head[m] at the doorway of the tent of assembly, and he will take the hair of his consecrated head,[n] and he will put it on the fire that is beneath the sacrifice of the fellowship offering. 19 The priest will take the shoulder from the ram that is boiled, and one ring-shaped bread cake of unleavened bread from the basket, and one wafer of unleavened bread, and he will put them on the hands of the Nazirite after he has shaved his consecrated head.[o] 20 The priest will wave them as a wave offering before the presence of[p] Yahweh; they[q] are a holy object to the priest, in addition to the breast section of the wave offering, and in addition to the upper thigh of the contribution; and afterward the Nazirite may drink wine.

21 “‘This is the regulation of the Nazirite who has made a vow of his offering to Yahweh according to his separation, in addition to what he can afford.[r] In accordance to the word of his vow that he vowed, he will do, concerning the instruction of his separation.’”

The Priestly Blessing

22 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘You will bless the Israelites:[s] You will say to them:

24 Yahweh will bless you
    and keep you;
25 Yahweh will make shine his face on you
    and be gracious to you;
26 Yahweh will lift up his face upon you,
    and he will give you peace.’

27 And they will put my name on the Israelites,[t] and I will bless them.”

Footnotes

  1. Numbers 6:2 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
  2. Numbers 6:2 Literally “one separated”
  3. Numbers 6:4 That is, “the Nazirite”
  4. Numbers 6:7 Literally “with their dying”
  5. Numbers 6:8 That is, “the Nazirite”
  6. Numbers 6:9 That is, “the Nazirite”
  7. Numbers 6:10 Literally “the sons of doves”
  8. Numbers 6:12 That is, “the Nazirite”
  9. Numbers 6:12 Literally “a son of his year”
  10. Numbers 6:14 Literally “a son of his year”
  11. Numbers 6:14 Literally “a daughter of his year”
  12. Numbers 6:16 Or “before the face of Yahweh”
  13. Numbers 6:18 Literally “the head of his separation”
  14. Numbers 6:18 Literally “the head of his separation”
  15. Numbers 6:19 Literally “his separation”
  16. Numbers 6:20 Literally “before the face of”
  17. Numbers 6:20 Hebrew “it”
  18. Numbers 6:21 Literally “except from that which overtakes his hand”
  19. Numbers 6:23 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
  20. Numbers 6:27 Literally “sons/children of Israel”