Numbers 6:8

6:8 All the days of his separation he must be holy to the Lord.

Numbers 15:40

15:40 Thus ¹  you will remember and obey all my commandments and be holy to your God.

Numbers 5:17

5:17 The priest will then take holy water ²  in a pottery jar, and take some ³  of the dust ⁴  that is on the floor of the tabernacle, and put it into the water.

Numbers 18:32

18:32 And you will bear no sin concerning it when you offer up the best of it. And you must not profane the holy things of the Israelites, or else you will die.’” ⁵ 

Numbers 6:5

6:5 “‘All the days of the vow ⁶  of his separation no razor may be used on his head ⁷  until the time ⁸  is fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord. He will be holy, ⁹  and he must let ¹⁰  the locks of hair on his head grow long.

Numbers 16:3

16:3 And they assembled against Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “You take too much upon yourselves, ¹¹  seeing that the whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the community of the Lord?”

Numbers 16:5

16:5 Then he said to Korah and to all his company, “In the morning the Lord will make known who are his, and who is holy. He will cause that person ¹²  to approach him; the person he has chosen he will cause to approach him.

Numbers 16:7

16:7 put fire in them, and set incense on them before the Lord tomorrow, and the man whom the Lord chooses will be holy. You take too much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi!”

Numbers 18:8

The Portion of the Priests

18:8 The Lord spoke to Aaron, “See, I have given you the responsibility for my raised offerings; I have given all the holy things of the Israelites to you as your priestly portion ¹³  and to your sons as a perpetual ordinance.

¹ tn This clause also serves as a purpose/result clause of the preceding – “in order that you may remember….” But because the line is so long, it is simpler to make this a separate sentence in the translation.

¹ tn This is probably water taken from the large bronze basin in the courtyard. It is water set apart for sacred service. “Clean water” (so NEB) does not capture the sense very well, but it does have the support of the Greek that has “pure running water.” That pure water would no doubt be from the bronze basin anyway.

² tn Heb “from.” The preposition is used here with a partitive sense.

³ sn The dust may have come from the sanctuary floor, but it is still dust, and therefore would have all the pollutants in it.

¹ tn The final clause could also be rendered “in order that you do not die.” The larger section can also be interpreted differently; rather than take it as a warning, it could be taken as an assurance that when they do all of this they will not be profaning it and so will not die (R. K. Harrison, Numbers [WEC], 253).

¹ 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.

² 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 Lord’s. It was to be undisturbed by humans. Since the Nazirite was to be consecrated to the Lord, that meant his whole person, hair included. In the pagan world the trimming of the beard and the cutting of the hair was often a sign of devotion to some deity.

³ tn Heb “days.”

⁴ tn The word “holy” here has the sense of distinct, different, set apart.

⁵ tn The Piel infinitive absolute functions as a verb in this passage; the Piel carries the sense of “grow lengthy” or “let grow long.”

¹ tn The meaning of רַב־לָכֶם (rab-lakhem) is something like “you have assumed far too much authority.” It simply means “much to you,” perhaps “you have gone to far,” or “you are overreaching yourselves” (M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 123). He is objecting to the exclusiveness of the system that Moses has been introducing.

¹ tn Heb “him.”

¹ tn This is an uncommon root. It may be connected to the word “anoint” as here (see RSV). But it may also be seen as an intended parallel to “perpetual due” (see Gen 47:22; Exod 29:28; Lev 6:11 [HT]).