What Does Numbers 6:20 Mean?
And the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the LORD. This is set apart for the priest, with the breast of the wave offering and the lifted shoulder. And after that the separated one may drink wine.
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 priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the LORD: this is holy for the priest, with the wave breast and heave shoulder: and after that the Nazarite may drink wine.THE KEY
The rite that marks the offering as holy also marks the Nazarite’s return to wine.
THE MEANING
A period of consecration has an appointed finish: the offering is presented, the priest receives his portion, and wine is permitted again. The sacred boundary has an end, and ordinary enjoyment returns with it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a sacred vow must mean permanent denial is undone here: wine is permitted again when the vow reaches its completion.
THE ROOT
נָזִיר
nāzîr
GROWS FROM
נזר
nāzar
To dedicate or set apart.
“separated one” in this verse is nāzîr. Nāzîr names one set apart by a vow, while its related nezer can mean a crown or consecrated mark. The word carries a marked, appointed state, and this verse names its close: the Nazarite may drink wine again.
ALSO GROWS
nezer: Crown, diadem; a sign of consecration.
נֵזֶר
The shared root links being set apart with a visible mark of dedication.
nāzar: To dedicate or separate oneself.
נָזַר
This verb names the act that gives the Nazarite vow its character.
תְּרוּמָה
terumah
GROWS FROM
רום
rûm
To rise, be high, or lift up.
“heave offering” in this verse is terumah. Terumah names the shoulder’s share through the act of lifting: the offering is a raised portion assigned to the priest. The root keeps that movement inside the gift itself.
ALSO GROWS
rām: High or elevated.
רָם
It shares the root’s sense of being raised.
mārôm: Height or a high place.
מָרוֹם
It extends the root’s upward motion into the idea of a height.
THE PATTERN
What is set apart before God can become a gift received in shared life.
For the waving breast and the lifted thigh I have taken from the children of Israel, from the slaughters of their wholeness offerings, and I have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons by a statute for the ages from among the children of Israel.And also, every human eats and drinks, and sees good in all his toil. This is the giving of God.For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be thrown away when it is taken with thanksgiving.THE THREAD
You set apart the breast of the wave offering, and the thigh of the lifted offering, which is waved, and which is lifted up from the ram of the filling, even from that which is for Aaron, and from that which is for his sons.Exodus uses the same wave-offering and heave-offering terms, making the two movements explicit: the breast is waved, and the shoulder is lifted. Numbers uses that same rite as the Nazarite’s vow reaches its close and wine is permitted again.
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