What Does Numbers 6:3 Mean in the King James?
He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried.
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 boundary reaches beyond intoxication to every form the vine’s yield can take, from fresh grapes to dried fruit and sour drink.
THE MEANING
When a life is set apart, this verse shows its boundary extending from wine and strong drink to vinegar, grape juice, and fresh or dried grapes. The commitment covers the whole source and its forms, not only the effect of intoxication.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that the boundary concerns only getting drunk: even the grape before fermentation, and its sour form afterward, are included.
THE ROOT
יַזִּיר
yazzir
GROWS FROM
נזר
Set apart, dedicate, keep separate.
“separate himself” in this verse is yazzir. The verb comes from נזר (n-z-r; nazar), the seed behind נָזִיר (nāzîr, one set apart) and נֵזֶר (nēzer, crown or mark of consecration). So “separate” carries the sense of a bounded, dedicated identity; the verse defines that boundary across the vine’s whole yield.
ALSO GROWS
nāzîr: One set apart; a Nazirite.
נָזִיר
The word names the person by the dedicated state expressed here through abstention.
nēzer: Crown, diadem, or mark of consecration.
נֵזֶר
Numbers 6:7 uses this related word for the consecration resting on the Nazirite’s head, giving the boundary a visible sign.
שֵׁכָר
shekar
GROWS FROM
שכר
Become intoxicated or intoxicate.
“strong drink” in this verse is shekar. The root names the altered state associated with the drink. Yet the verse also excludes vinegar and grapes in fresh and dried forms, showing that the boundary reaches beyond intoxication to the source and its products.
ALSO GROWS
shikkor: Drunk, intoxicated.
שִׁכּוֹר
This branch names the state associated with strong drink, the limit the verse extends beyond.
shikkaron: Drunkenness, intoxication.
שִׁכָּרוֹן
This branch names the condition, while the verse’s wider list includes even forms of the vine that do not produce that condition.
THE PATTERN
A life devoted to a purpose makes that devotion visible through boundaries that govern what it receives.
Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations:But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.THE THREAD
He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration of his God is upon his head.The word translated “consecration” is נֵזֶר (nēzer, crown or mark of consecration), from the same נזר (n-z-r; nazar) root as “separate himself” here. The boundary in verse 3 is part of a marked identity that this verse pictures as resting on the head.
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