Dominic Bnonn Tennant (the B is silent)

Numbers 6

1

And Yahweh spoke unto Moses, saying:

2

Speak unto the sons of Israel and say unto them: The man or woman that doeth wondrously1 to vow a vow of the separated2 to separate unto Yahweh,

3

from wine and inebriant3 he shall separate; vinegar of wine and vinegar of inebriant he shall not drink, and all steepings4 of grapes he shall not drink, and grapes wet and dried he shall not eat.

4

All the days of his separation, from all that is made of the vine of wine, from kernels until husk,5 he eateth not.

5

All the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall cross upon his head; until the days are filled that he separateth unto Yahweh, holy is he: he shall make big6 the loose7 hair of his head.

6

All the days he separateth unto Yahweh, near8 no dead soul9 shall he come in:

7

for his father and for his mother, for his brother and for his sister; he shall not defile himself for them in their death, ‹in› that the separation10 of his God is upon his head.

8

All the days of his separation, holy is he unto Yahweh.

9

And ‹in› that the dead dieth near him in a wink, a twinkling,11 and he defileth the head of his separation, then he shall shave his head in the day of his purification; in the seventh day he shall shave it.

10

And in the eighth day he shall bring in two turtledoves or two sons of pigeons12 unto the priest, unto the opening of the tent of meeting.

11

And the priest shall make13 one for an amissment ‹offering›, and one for an ascension, and cover over him from that ‹which› he did amiss by the soul, and he shall hallow his head in that same day,

12

and separate unto Yahweh the days of his separation and bring in a lamb, the son of a year, for a guilt ‹offering›; and the first14 days shall fall, ‹in› that his separation was defiled.

24

Yahweh bless thee and guard thee;

25

Yahweh make his face lighten unto thee, and be gracious to thee;

26

Yahweh bear his face unto thee, and set unto thee peace.

Footnotes

  1. wondrously. Or “accomplishedly.” The meaning seems to be that a nazirite vow is a special accomplishment; a human version of the “wonders” that God performed in Egypt during the plagues. Thus the implication is that this vow relates specifically to holy war. ↩

  2. vow of the separated. Or “vow of the Nazir(ite),” but naziyr derives from nazar, “separate.” The transliterated term Nazirite is really without meaning in English; translating it makes its meaning transparent to the reader, along with the abundant connections within the passage. We could whimsically translate this the vow of the separatee, but that sounded a little bureaucratic to my ear. ↩

  3. inebriant. Trad. “strong drink.” The exact type of drink is unknown, but shekhar is the nominal form of shakhar, which means to become inebriated. James Jordan believes this refers to beer, but while beer may be a type of inebriant, I think the word is more general; it really refers to anything that can make you drunk. I doubt very much that beer is primarily in view here, since it is weaker than wine; but in Hebrew parallelism, the second item builds upon or reinforces the first, so we should expect shekhar to be stronger than wine. The essential point, however, is that a Nazirite is separated to priestly service, and thus, like the priests, cannot drink wine while “on duty;” as long as his vow continues, his life is, covenantally speaking, being conducted within the holy place. All of the laws of the Nazirite signal that it is a form of priestly service; cf. Lev 10:8–10; 21:10–12. ↩

  4. steepings. Or possibly simply “juice,” or maybe “liquor.” Several words in this passages appear nowhere else in the OT. ↩

  5. kernels until husk. I have followed the traditional translation of these terms, but they appear only here in scripture, and their meaning is uncertain. The overall sense is evidently “from stem to stern,” if you’ll permit such a mixed metaphor. ↩

  6. make big. The verb gadal here means to grow, of course, but it is a generic term that simply means to become big, connected to the common adjective gadol, “big.” It can indicate anything from “grow” to “magnify.” ↩

  7. loose. Trad. “locks.” The Hebrew word is a noun, not an adjective, but it is derived from the verb meaning to unloose, sometimes used specifically of hair (Lev 10:6; Num 5:18; cf. Ex 5:4; 32:25). ↩

  8. near. Literally “upon,” and again in verse 9. ↩

  9. soul. Or “life,” or “lifebreath.” Similarly in verse 11. ↩

  10. separation. Or “crown.” The same word means both. ↩

  11. in a wink, in a twinkling. The Hebrew uses two forms of the same word, derived from the opening of the eye (i.e., a blink), to emphasize the suddenness of the death. In English, wink and twinkle have a similar phonetic connection, so this is my best effort to capture the feeling of what is expressed. ↩

  12. sons of pigeons. I.e., young pigeons. The word yona is distinct from the word for turtledoves, and probably refers to rock pigeons. I have chosen pigeon rather than dove to avoid the possible confusion of thinking that turtledoves and doves are the same thing. ↩

  13. make. Or “do.” The sense is “prepare.” ↩

  14. first. The root of this word is rosh, “head.” ↩