Numbers6chapter 6

This site's guide to Numbers lists the five Hebrew words the blessing turns on (src/components/book/guides/numbers/NumbersGuide.tsx). Those words are barak for blessing, shamar for keeping, panim for the face, chanan for being gracious, and shalom for peace. The dossier adds what each carries. Of barak it notes that these are the priesthood's own words placed directly in their mouths rather than composed by them. Of shamar it notes that this is the same verb used of the cherubim guarding Eden, now spoken as a blessing over Israel (src/components/book/dossier-content/numbers.ts).

The oldest artifact yet found quoting a biblical text

Two small rolled silver scrolls were found in a burial cave at Ketef Hinnom outside Jerusalem by Gabriel Barkay in 1979, and they carry wording close to the lines of this blessing. The dossier for this book records them with their dating, excavated 1979 and inscribed in the late seventh to early sixth century BC. It states what they are: the oldest artifact yet found quoting a biblical text, centuries older than the Dead Sea Scrolls (src/components/book/dossier-content/numbers.ts, the archaeology section).

What the find carries should be stated at its own level. The scrolls carry a version of these lines rather than the chapter, and the dating is given as a range rather than as a year. What they establish is that these words were written, worn and buried in Jerusalem before the exile, which places the wording of the blessing well before the earliest surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. What they do not settle is the date of the chapter that holds them.

The threefold name, and what the commentators make of it

The name of the LORD stands in each of the three lines. Charles Spurgeon marks that the word occurs three times and that each occurrence carries a different accent in the Hebrew. He notes that the rabbis agree some significance lies in that without saying what. He gives his own reading as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He states it at the strength he holds it: he thinks it very likely (The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3371, Two Choice Benedictions, 1913). The reading carried in Jewish tradition is of the one God named three times. Adam Clarke takes a third road and treats the three lines as three separate blessings, any or all of which the priests might use on any occasion (Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Numbers 6:24). The page states no verdict among the three.

Albert Barnes records the other tradition attached to the blessing. It belonged to Aaron and his sons alone. Jewish tradition placed it at the close of the daily sacrifice (Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Numbers 6:22).

Whether the Nazirite is a type of Christ

Adam Clarke names the claim and declines it. He holds that some contend strongly that the Nazirite was a type of our Lord. He holds that neither analogy nor proof can be produced for it (Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Numbers 6:2). His ground is the plain one: the terms of the vow and the life of Christ do not line up, since Christ drank wine and touched the dead.

Matthew Henry separates the two senses of the word and keeps the typology on other ground. He holds that Christ was called a Nazarene in reproach, which is a different word and a different thing from this vow. He holds that the type had its accomplishment in him because in him all purity and perfection met. Every true Christian is then a spiritual Nazirite separated by vow to the Lord (Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Numbers 6:2). John Wesley reads the vow as putting the man at the high priest's level. He reads it as an eminent type of Christ in the one respect the chapter names. The Nazirite must prefer the service of God to his affection for the nearest of his relations (Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Numbers 6:7).

The dossier for this book takes the blessing rather than the vow as the christological entry. It reads the threefold blessing as grace mediated through a priesthood that Hebrews carries forward into a greater High Priest. That High Priest saves to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, at Hebrews 7:25 (src/components/book/dossier-content/numbers.ts, the christIn section).

Why a kept vow ends in a sin offering

Verse 14 puts a sin offering into the closing sacrifices of a vow that was kept to the end, and the commentators divide on what it means. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that even this full completion did not remove the need for a sin offering at the close. The reason they give is that sin mingles with our best and holiest performances (Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Numbers 6:14). John Wesley reads the same offering as the man's own confession of his failures in spite of the strictness of his vow and of all the diligence he could use. He reads it as an acknowledgment that he needed the grace of God in Christ (Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Numbers 6:14).

The same question returns at verse 11, where the priest makes atonement for a man because he sinned in the presence of a dead body he could not have foreseen. John Wesley reads the word there of the ceremonial uncleanness rather than of a fault of the man's own doing. He holds that the pollution was the chastisement of his sin rather than the sin itself (Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Numbers 6:11). Matthew Henry notes that more was required for the purifying of a Nazirite than of any other person who had touched a dead body. He had to bring a sin offering and a burnt offering and have atonement made for him (Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Numbers 6:9).

How long the vow ran

The chapter fixes no term, and verse 5 leaves the length to the vow itself. Adam Clarke reasons from the closing ritual to a minimum. He holds that the vow continued for a certain season, probably never less than a whole year. The man would then have a full growth of hair to burn in the fire under the peace offering at verse 18 (Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Numbers 6:5). That is an inference from the rite rather than a term the text states, and it is given here as Clarke's reading.

The vow elsewhere in Scripture

The chapter's terms are handed to other people in other books. Judges 13:5 gives the clause about the razor to the mother of Samson before he is born, and Judges 13:14 gives her the whole abstention from the vine. Hannah uses the same clause word for word at 1 Samuel 1:11 when she gives Samuel to the LORD. Amos 2:11 and 2:12 have God saying that he raised up Nazirites from among Israel's young men and that Israel gave the Nazirites wine to drink.

The New Testament carries the practice into the apostolic period. Acts 18:18 records that Paul had his head shaved at Cenchrea because of a vow, and Acts 21:23 to 26 has him in the temple paying the expenses of four men who were under one. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read Acts 18:18 with this chapter. They hold that on a limited vow the hair might be cut wherever the man happened to be. It was then kept and brought to the door of the sanctuary (Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Numbers 6:13). Adam Clarke reads verse 21 with Maimonides, who records that a man might become a Nazirite on behalf of another by helping to bear the expense of the sacrifices. Maimonides also records that a son might fulfil a vow his father had made and had not lived to accomplish (Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Numbers 6:21).

The blessing itself is prayed back through the Psalter. Psalm 67:1 asks God to cause his face to shine upon us, and Psalm 80:3 asks him to cause his face to shine. Psalm 4:6 asks him to lift up the light of his countenance upon us. Revelation 22:4 closes the canon with the picture verse 27 gives, God's servants with his name on their foreheads.