What Does Numbers 6:3 Mean?
He shall separate himself from wine and from the reeling drink, and shall drink no sour wine, or sour drink, nor drink any juice pressed from grapes, nor eat grapes, wet or dried.
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
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 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.
“from the reeling 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 or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute for the ages throughout your generations.But Daniel set in his heart that he would not be soiled with the king's bread, nor with the wine he drank, and so he sought from the master of the eunuchs that he might not be soiled.And everyone who strains in the contest holds himself in check in all things. They do this to take hold of a crown that can be ruined, but we take hold of one that cannot be ruined.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.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.
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