What Does Judges 13:7 Mean?
But he said to me, Look, you will conceive and bear a son. And now drink no wine nor strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing, for the child shall be set apart to God from the womb to the day of his death.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “Nazarite” holds a whole life set apart inside one name: from the womb to the day of death.
THE MEANING
You are shown a life whose dedication begins before conscious choice: even the mother’s food and drink fall within its boundary. The child is named as set apart to God from the womb through death, making dedication the frame of his whole lifespan.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the assumption that a life’s dedication to God can begin only when the person chooses it: here it is named before birth and extends to death.
THE ROOT
נָזִיר
nāzîr
GROWS FROM
נזר
To separate, set apart, or dedicate.
“set apart to God” in this verse is nāzîr. The Hebrew calls him a nazir, one set apart; the same root gives nezer, meaning consecration and also a crown. The English label conceals that link, while “from the womb to the day of his death” shows the dedication spanning his whole life.
ALSO GROWS
nāzar: To separate oneself, dedicate oneself, or abstain.
נָזַר
The abstention from wine and strong drink is presented as a boundary of dedication, not as an isolated restriction.
nēzer: Consecration; a crown or diadem.
נֵזֶר
The crown sense connects the root’s idea of being set apart with a visible mark borne on the head, as Samson’s uncut hair later makes clear.
THE PATTERN
Consecration is expressed through embodied boundaries, sometimes named before birth and carried across a lifetime.
All the days of the vow of his separation no blade shall pass over his head. Until the days are filled, in which he separates himself unto the LORD, he shall be set apart, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow and run free.And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look upon the bending low of your handmaid, and remember me, and not forget your handmaid, but give your handmaid a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.For he will be great before the face of the LORD, and he will drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with the Set-Apart Breath, even from his mother's womb.THE THREAD
That he laid open to her all his heart, and said to her, No blade has come up upon my head, for I have been set apart unto God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will turn aside from me, and I will become weak, and be like any other man.Samson uses the same word, nazir, for the identity named here, and points to his uncut hair as its visible boundary. The shared root’s link to nezer, “consecration” and “crown,” brings that bodily sign into view.
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