What Does Numbers 6:2 Mean?
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of the separated one, to separate themselves unto the LORD.
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
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD:THE KEY
The set-apart one shares a root with the crown of consecration: dedication becomes something worn, not merely a vow spoken.
THE MEANING
This verse presents a woman or a man choosing to mark a life as set apart unto the LORD through a vow. The dedication is chosen inwardly and takes shape in a distinct pattern of life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that this particular vow belongs to men alone: the verse names both woman and man as able to undertake it.
THE ROOT
לְהַזִּיר
lehazir
GROWS FROM
נזר
To set apart, dedicate, or abstain.
“to separate themselves unto the LORD” in this verse is lehazir. The word for the Nazarite, נָזִיר (nazir), shares this root with נֵזֶר (nezer), meaning crown or consecration. The connection pictures dedication as a marked identity, like a crown borne through one’s days.
ALSO GROWS
nazir: A person set apart or consecrated.
נָזִיר
This is the name for the person who takes the vow in the verse.
nezer: Crown, diadem, or consecration.
נֵזֶר
Numbers 6:7 uses this word for the consecration upon the Nazarite’s head, bringing the crown image into the same chapter.
נֶדֶר
neder
GROWS FROM
נדר
To vow or make a binding pledge.
The Hebrew pairs the verb נָדַר (nadar), “to vow,” with the noun נֶדֶר (neder), “a vow.” The repeated root gives the spoken commitment a concrete form: the person both vows and takes on a pledged course of life.
ALSO GROWS
nadar: To vow or pledge.
נָדַר
It names the act of choosing this dedication.
neder: A vow or pledged commitment.
נֶדֶר
It names the commitment itself, repeated alongside the verb in the phrase “to vow a vow.”
THE PATTERN
A vow gives chosen dedication a visible form and a pledged course of life.
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.When you vow a vow to God, do not linger to make it whole. For there is no delight in the thick-headed. Make whole what you have vowed.And Paul remained yet many days, then took his leave of the brothers and sailed for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Cenchrea, for he had a vow.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 separation of his God rests upon his head.“Consecration” here is נֵזֶר (nezer), from the same root as נָזִיר (nazir), the set-apart person named in this verse. The shared root reveals dedication as a marked identity borne upon the head, like a crown.
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