What Does Numbers 6:18 Mean?
And the separated one shall shave the head of his separation at the opening of the tent of meeting, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and set it in the fire that is beneath the slaughter of wholeness.
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
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 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 make whole my vows to the LORD, now in front of all his people.Then Paul took the men alongside him, and on the next day, cleansing himself with them, entered the temple, to make visible the filling of the days of cleansing, until the offering was brought near for each one of them.THE THREAD
You set the turban upon his head, and place the set-apart crown upon the turban.“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.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us