For Teaching

Numbers 6: What the Passage Says

94 claims across 27 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Numbers 6 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD gives Moses the rules for the Nazirite vow, a promise by which a man or woman sets himself apart to the LORD for a set time. During that time the person must avoid wine and anything from the grapevine, leave his hair uncut, and stay away from dead bodies; the chapter also gives the offerings for a vow broken by a sudden death nearby, and the offerings that end the vow. The LORD then gives Aaron and his sons the words they are to use when they bless the people of Israel.

Claim by Claim

6:1
- The LORD spoke to Moses.
- The LORD told Moses to say something.
6:2
- The LORD told Moses to speak to the children of Israel.
- The LORD told Moses to say to them what follows.
- The instruction concerns a man or a woman.
- The case is when that person makes a special or extraordinary vow.
- The vow is the vow of a Nazirite.
- The vow is to separate oneself to the LORD.
6:3
- The Nazirite shall separate himself from wine and strong drink.
- He shall drink no vinegar made from wine.
- He shall drink no vinegar made from strong drink.
- He shall drink no liquid made by steeping grapes.
- He shall eat no fresh grapes.
- He shall eat no dried grapes.
6:4
- This applies for all the days of his separation.
- He shall eat nothing that is made from the grapevine.
- The prohibition covers everything from the grape seeds to the grape skins.
6:5
- For all the days of the vow of his separation, no razor shall pass over his head.
- The prohibition lasts until the days of his separation to the LORD are completed.
- He shall be holy.
- He shall let the hair of his head grow long and unshorn.
6:6
- For all the days that he separates himself to the LORD, he shall not come near a dead person.
6:7
- He shall not make himself unclean for his father when his father dies.
- He shall not make himself unclean for his mother when she dies.
- He shall not make himself unclean for his brother when his brother dies.
- He shall not make himself unclean for his sister when she dies.
- The reason is that the consecration of his God is upon his head.
6:8
- For all the days of his separation, he is holy to the LORD.
6:9
- The case is when someone dies beside him very suddenly.
- Such a death defiles the head of his consecration.
- He shall then shave his head on the day of his cleansing.
- He shall shave it on the seventh day.
6:10
- On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons.
- He shall bring them to the priest.
- He shall bring them to the entrance of the tent of meeting.
6:11
- The priest shall offer one bird as a sin offering.
- The priest shall offer the other bird as a burnt offering.
- The priest shall make atonement for him.
- The atonement is because he sinned by contact with the dead person.
- He shall consecrate his head on that same day.
6:12
- He shall consecrate to the LORD the days of his separation.
- He shall bring a year-old male lamb as a guilt offering.
- The former days shall not count.
- The reason the former days are lost is that his separation was defiled.
6:13
- This is the law of the Nazirite.
- It applies on the day when the days of his separation are fulfilled.
- He shall be brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting.
6:14
- He shall present his offering to the LORD.
- The offering includes one year-old male lamb without blemish for a burnt offering.
- The offering includes one year-old ewe lamb without blemish for a sin offering.
- The offering includes one ram without blemish for peace offerings.
6:15
- The offering includes a basket of unleavened bread.
- The basket contains cakes of fine flour mixed with oil.
- The basket contains wafers of unleavened bread spread with oil.
- The offering includes their grain offering.
- The offering includes their drink offerings.
6:16
- The priest shall present these before the LORD.
- The priest shall offer his sin offering.
- The priest shall offer his burnt offering.
6:17
- He shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD.
- The ram is offered together with the basket of unleavened bread.
- The priest shall also offer his grain offering.
- The priest shall also offer his drink offering.
6:18
- The Nazirite shall shave the head of his separation at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
- He shall take the hair of the head of his separation.
- He shall put the hair on the fire that is under the sacrifice of peace offerings.
6:19
- The priest shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram.
- The priest shall take one unleavened cake out of the basket.
- The priest shall take one unleavened wafer.
- The priest shall put them on the hands of the Nazirite.
- This happens after the hair of his separation has been shaved.
6:20
- The priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the LORD.
- This is holy and belongs to the priest.
- It belongs to the priest in addition to the breast of the wave offering.
- It belongs to the priest in addition to the thigh that is contributed.
- After that, the Nazirite may drink wine.
6:21
- This is the law of the Nazirite who vows.
- It concerns his offering to the LORD for his separation.
- It applies apart from whatever else his means allow him to give.
- He must do according to the vow that he vowed.
- He must act in accordance with the law of his separation.
6:22
- The LORD spoke to Moses.
- The LORD told Moses to say something.
6:23
- The LORD told Moses to speak to Aaron and to his sons.
- The LORD said this is how they are to bless the children of Israel.
- The LORD told them to say the following words to the Israelites.
6:24
- The blessing asks that the LORD bless you.
- The blessing asks that the LORD keep you.
6:25
- The blessing asks that the LORD make his face shine upon you.
- The blessing asks that the LORD be gracious to you.
6:26
- The blessing asks that the LORD lift up his face toward you.
- The blessing asks that the LORD give you peace.
6:27
- They shall put the LORD's name upon the children of Israel.
- The LORD says he will bless them.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

6:1: The King James prints LORD in capital letters when the Hebrew text has God's own personal name, the name he gave to Israel.
6:2: A Nazirite (the Hebrew word means "one set apart" or "dedicated") was not a priest and did not belong to any special tribe or class. Any ordinary Israelite, man or woman, could take this vow voluntarily, usually for a fixed stretch of time, after which normal life resumed. The three restrictions that follow (no grape products, no cutting the hair, no contact with a corpse) were the whole content of the vow. (KJV "Nazarite" is the same word; it has no connection with the town of Nazareth.)
6:3: "Strong drink" translates a Hebrew word for fermented drink made from something other than grapes, beer made from barley, or drink made from dates or other fruit. The ban covers not just alcohol but everything the grapevine produces, including vinegar, which was soured wine used as a condiment and, watered down, as a cheap drink.
6:4: The ban covers the entire grapevine and everything from it, from the seeds inside the grape to the skin outside. The point is not that grapes were considered evil but that the Nazirite gave up something ordinary and enjoyable for the whole period of the vow.
6:5: Uncut hair was the visible public marker of the vow: anyone meeting the person could see at once that he was under it. The length of the hair also showed roughly how long he had been keeping it.
6:6: In Israelite law, touching or being under the same roof as a corpse made a person ritually unclean for seven days. "Unclean" here is a ceremonial status, not dirt or wrongdoing; it simply barred a person from the sanctuary and from holy things until the set purification was carried out.
6:7: Burying and mourning close relatives was a duty so strong that the law elsewhere makes exceptions for it. This verse removes even that exception for the Nazirite. The KJV phrase "the consecration of his God is upon his head" uses a Hebrew word (nezer) that also names the crown or diadem worn by a king or the high priest, the long hair functions as that kind of emblem.
6:8: "Holy" here means set apart and kept for God's use. It says who the person belongs to, not that he is better than anyone else.
6:9: The seven days are the standard purification period after contact with a corpse (set out in Numbers 19). Shaving removes the hair that had been dedicated and is now defiled, so the vow can be started over from zero.
6:10: KJV "turtles" means turtledoves, small wild pigeons, not turtles. A pair of birds was the least expensive animal offering the law allowed, so this requirement did not depend on wealth. The tent of meeting (KJV "tabernacle of the congregation") was the portable sanctuary the Israelites carried through the wilderness; its entrance was where offerings were presented.
6:11: A sin offering (also translated "purification offering") dealt with ritual defilement and unintentional wrongs; a burnt offering was burned up entirely on the altar rather than shared as food. "Atonement" translates a Hebrew verb meaning to wipe clean or cover over, restoring a person to a state in which they may approach the sanctuary.
6:12: The guilt offering (KJV "trespass offering") was the sacrifice made when something holy had been damaged or misused, and it often came with compensation. Note what the verse says next: the clock resets entirely. Time already served under the vow does not count toward the total.
6:14: "Without blemish" means physically unflawed, no injury, disease or deformity. A peace offering (also translated "fellowship offering") was the one kind of sacrifice partly eaten by the worshiper and their household as a shared meal, with set portions going to the priests.
6:15: Bread without yeast is flat and quick to make; leavened bread was normally kept out of offerings burned at the altar. KJV "meat offering" does not mean flesh, in 1611 "meat" meant food in general, and this offering was flour, oil and incense. A drink offering was wine poured out beside the altar.
6:18: Burning the hair in the fire under the peace offering hands it over with the sacrifice rather than simply discarding it: the hair had been dedicated along with the person, so it is disposed of as a holy thing.
6:19: KJV "sodden" is the old past participle of "seethe" and means boiled. Placing the food in the worshiper's hands and then waving it is the gesture that formally transfers it from him to the sanctuary.
6:20: The wave offering was presented with a ritual motion before the altar and then went to the priests as food. The breast and the thigh (KJV "heave shoulder") were the priests' standing share of every peace offering; the boiled shoulder here is an extra portion on top of that. The closing line marks the vow as formally over, the ban on wine lifts.
6:21: KJV "beside that that his hand shall get" means "in addition to whatever else he can afford." The offerings listed are the minimum; a person with means could promise more, and having promised it, was bound to it.
6:23: Aaron and his sons were the priests; this is the wording they were to use over the assembled people. In Hebrew the blessing is tightly built, three lines of three, five and seven words, each naming the LORD, each widening as it goes.
6:24: "Keep thee" means guard or protect you, the way a watchman keeps a city. It is not the modern sense of keeping something in your possession.
6:25: "Make his face shine on you" is an ancient idiom for turning toward someone with favor, the way a face lights up on seeing a person you are glad to see. The opposite idiom, hiding the face, means refusal or disregard.
6:26: "Lift up his countenance" is a parallel idiom: to raise the face toward someone, meeting their eyes, rather than looking away. "Peace" translates shalom, which is broader than the absence of fighting: it covers health, safety, prosperity and everything being sound and whole.
6:27: "Put my name on" is legal-sounding language for marking something as belonging to someone, the way a name stamped on property identifies its owner.

Read Numbers 6