What Does Numbers 6:6 Mean in the King James?
All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body.
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 Hebrew for “separateth” shares its root with “crown,” so the vow’s boundary marks a life set apart.
THE MEANING
Here, being set apart unto the LORD extends through every day of the vow and reaches even to contact with the dead. The boundary is bodily and specific: devotion shapes what can be approached.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that devotion remains purely inward is undone here: the vow reaches the body’s contact with death.
THE ROOT
הַזִּירוֹ
hazzîrô
GROWS FROM
נזר
n-z-r
Set apart or dedicate; keep separate.
“separateth himself” in this verse is hazzîrô. The same root names the set-apart person and a nezer, a crown or sign of consecration. English says only that he separates himself, while Hebrew links that boundary with the language of dedicated status.
ALSO GROWS
nāzîr: A person set apart for a vow; a Nazirite.
נָזִיר
This branch names the person whose days are marked by the boundary in this verse.
nēzer: A crown, diadem, or sign of consecration.
נֵזֶר
This branch links separation with a marked, dedicated status rather than mere distance.
מֵת
mēt
GROWS FROM
מות
m-w-t
Die; be dead.
The Hebrew phrase is nefesh met: a person or living being who is dead. The wording keeps the person in view even as the vow marks contact with death as its boundary.
ALSO GROWS
mût: To die.
מוּת
The verb names the movement into death that the vow keeps at a distance.
māwet: Death.
מָוֶת
This noun makes explicit the condition embodied by the dead person in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Set-apart devotion takes form through boundaries that shape bodily contact.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people:Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;THE THREAD
All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.The Hebrew root behind “separateth” in both verses names the dedication of the vow. One verse marks that dedication through uncut hair, the next through a boundary around the dead: the same set-apart life takes shape in the body.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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