What Does Numbers 6:18 Mean in the King James?
And the Nazarite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The sign of separation shares its Hebrew root with a crown, and the verse places that head-marked consecration into the fire when its season reaches completion.
THE MEANING
A set-apart season reaches a visible completion: the hair that marks the Nazirite’s vow is cut at the meeting place and placed on the fire beneath the offering of wholeness. The verse holds consecration and completion together: the sign is surrendered as the vow ends.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that a consecrated identity must remain marked forever: here, the sign of separation is surrendered when its season is complete.
THE ROOT
נִזְרוֹ
nizrō his consecration
GROWS FROM
נזר
N-Z-R
To set apart or dedicate oneself; this word family also names consecration and a crown or diadem.
The word translated “separation” belongs to the same family as a word for a crown. What marks the head is not merely distance from others: it is a sign of consecration, and here that sign is placed into the fire as the vow reaches its end.
ALSO GROWS
nāzîr: A person set apart under a vow.
נָזִיר
This is the person named in the verse; the hair bears the visible sign of that vowed consecration.
nēzer: Consecration; also a crown or diadem.
נֵזֶר
The shared root lets the head-borne sign of the vow echo the language of a crown, a mark of consecrated status.
הַשְּׁלָמִים
ha-shelāmîm the wholeness
GROWS FROM
שלם
Š-L-M
To be complete or whole; the word family carries ideas of wholeness, well-being, and completion.
“peace offerings” in this verse is ha-shelāmîm the wholeness. The offerings beneath the fire are named from the root of wholeness. The verse places the ending of the vow inside an offering whose name holds more than calm: it carries the sense of completeness and well-being.
ALSO GROWS
shalōm: Wholeness, well-being, or peace.
שָׁלוֹם
The offering’s name shares this root, linking the vow’s completion with a wider sense of wholeness.
shālēm: Whole, complete, or finished.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the completed season audible in the same root family as the offerings beneath the fire.
THE PATTERN
A vow’s set-apart season reaches a public completion, held within an offering.
I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.THE THREAD
And thou shalt put the mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre.“His separation” here and “crown” in Exodus share the Hebrew word family נזר (N-Z-R), including נֵזֶר (nēzer, consecration or crown). That makes the Nazirite’s hair a head-borne sign of consecration, one that, in this verse, enters the fire as the vow ends.
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