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Numbers 6 Bible study: Set apart, and blessed

The Nazirite vow was open to "either man or woman" (6:2), lasted a set number of days, and ended with the hair on the fire (6:18) and "After that the Nazirite may drink wine" (6:20). And the priests' blessing names the LORD in each of its three lines, and the LORD says what it does: "they shall put my name on the children of Israel; and I will bless them" (6:27).

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“The LORD bless you, and keep you. The LORD make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you. The LORD lift up his face toward you, and give you peace.”
Numbers 6:24-26 · World English Bible

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“In Numbers 6, a woman as well as a man could make the vow of a Nazirite.”

Is that in Numbers 6, or not? Make your call.

What's really going on

A vow anyone could make

In the text

The Levites were taken by the LORD (Numbers 3:12). The Nazirite chooses: "When either man or woman shall make a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD" (6:2). The vow has three marks. "He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink", and he eats "nothing that is made of the grapevine, from the seeds even to the skins" (6:3-4). "No razor shall come on his head" (6:5). And "he shall not go near a dead body" (6:6). The chapter says what this makes him: "He shall be holy" (6:5), and "All the days of his separation he is holy to the LORD" (6:8).

Where it leads to Jesus

Keep them through your name

Interpretation

Numbers 6:24leads toJohn 17:11-12

The blessing begins, "The LORD bless you, and keep you" (6:24), and ends, "So they shall put my name on the children of Israel; and I will bless them" (6:27). Jesus prayed for his disciples, "Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me" (John 17:11), and said, "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name" (John 17:12). Jesus doesn't quote Numbers 6, so setting the two side by side is a reading: some hear in his prayer the same two things the blessing joins, God keeping his people and his name on them; others read John 17 on its own, as Jesus' prayer for his disciples, without reference to the priests' blessing.

Honest questions

Questions people ask about Numbers 6

That was a taste

The rest of Numbers 6 is waiting in Favor

  • Words the law used for priests
  • Starting again
  • The words for blessing
  • Three lines, one name
  • The same words in the Psalms
  • Nazirites given wine
  • 13 questions as you read
  • 12 more Hebrew words
  • A short check at the end
  • Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it

נָזִירnazirsay na-ZEER

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "one consecrated, devoted". Strong's: "separate, i.e. consecrated (as prince, a Nazirite)". It is the name of the one who takes this vow: "the vow of a Nazirite" (6:2), and "This is the law of the Nazirite" (6:13, 6:21). It comes six times in this chapter. Jacob's blessing used it for Joseph, "him who is separated from his brothers" (Genesis 49:26). Leviticus uses the same word for a vine left unpruned in the sabbath year, which the WEB gives as "your undressed vine" (Leviticus 25:5); Strong's: "an unpruned vine (like an unshorn Nazirite)".

For your group

Numbers 6 Bible study questions

  1. 1The Nazirite set himself apart to the LORD for a set number of days (6:5, 6:13). Is there something you'd want to set aside for a season to give yourself more fully to God?
  2. 2A sudden death beside the Nazirite meant "the former days shall be void" (6:12), and he began again. When have you had to start over through no choice of your own, and what helped you do it?
  3. 3The LORD gave Aaron and his sons words to bless people with (6:23-26). Who could you speak a blessing over this week, and what would you say?

Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Numbers 6 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.

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Questions

What is Favor?

Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.

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