Numbers 6:2-3
man <0376> [When.]
special .... take ........ separate <06381 05087 05144 03068> [separate themselves.]
The word {yaphli,} rendered "shall separate themselves," signifies, "the doing of something extraordinary," and is the same word as is used concerning the making a singular vow. (Le 27:2); it seems to convey the idea of a person's acting from extraordinary zeal for God and religion.
take <05087> [to vow.]
separate <05144 03068> [to separate themselves. or, to make themselves Nazarites.]
{Lahazzir,} from {nazar,} to be separate; hence {nazir,} a Nazarite, i.e., a person separated; one peculiarly devoted to the service of God by being separated from all servile employments. The Nazarites were of two kinds: such as were devoted to God by their parents in their infancy, or even sometimes before they were born; and such as devoted themselves. The former were Nazarites for life; and the latter commonly bound themselves to observe the laws of the Nazarites for a limited time. The Nazarites for life were not bound to the same strictness as the others, concerning whom the laws relate.
Besides the religious nature of this institution, it seems to have been partly of a civil and prudential use. The sobriety and temperance which the Nazarites were obliged to observe were very conducive to health. Accordingly, they were celebrated for their fair and ruddy complexion; being said to be both whiter than milk and more ruddy than rubies (La 4:7); the sure signs of a sound and healthy constitution. It may here be observed, that when God intended to raise up Samson, by his strength of body, to scourge the enemies of Israel, he ordered, that from his infancy he should drink no wine, but live by the rule of the Nazarites, because that would greatly contribute to make him strong and healthy; intending, after nature had done her utmost to form this extraordinary instrument of his providence, to supply her defect by his own supernatural power. See Jenning's Jewish Antiquities, B. I. c. 8.
