6:5 “‘All the days of the vow 7 of his separation no razor may be used on his head 8 until the time 9 is fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord. He will be holy, 10 and he must let 11 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 12 a dead body. 13 6:7 He must not defile himself even 14 for his father or his mother or his brother or his sister if they die, 15 because the separation 16 for 17 his God is on his head. 6:8 All the days of his separation he must be holy to the Lord.
1 tn The operative verb now will be the Hiphil of נָזַר (nazar); the consecration to the
2 tn The “vinegar” (חֹמֶץ, homets) is some kind of drink preparation that has been allowed to go sour.
3 tn This word occurs only here. It may come from the word “to water, to be moist,” and so refer to juice.
4 tn Heb “dried” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).
5 tn This word also is rare, occurring only here.
6 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
7 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.
8 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
9 tn Heb “days.”
10 tn The word “holy” here has the sense of distinct, different, set apart.
11 tn The Piel infinitive absolute functions as a verb in this passage; the Piel carries the sense of “grow lengthy” or “let grow long.”
12 tn The Hebrew verb is simply “enter, go,” no doubt with the sense of go near.
13 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
14 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.
15 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.
16 tn The word “separation” here is metonymy of adjunct – what is on his head is long hair that goes with the vow.
17 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.