Nazirite vow

The Nazirite vow is a voluntary, time-bounded consecration to the LORD that sets the person apart through restrictions on drink, hair, and contact with the dead. Its law provides for accidental defilement as well as an ordered conclusion involving offerings, the shaving and presentation of consecrated hair, and a return to drinking wine.

Who May Vow and the Terms of Consecration

The vow is open to either a man or a woman who clearly undertakes this special consecration. Throughout its term, the Nazirite must abstain from wine and strong drink, vinegar made from either, grape liquor, and fresh or dried grapes. The prohibition extends across the vine’s products, from pressed grapes to grape seeds.

The consecrated person must let the hair grow without a razor for the entire period of the vow. The uncut hair marks the head as consecrated to the LORD, while a separate rule prohibits approaching a dead body. Even the death of a father, mother, brother, or sister does not permit the Nazirite to become ritually unclean; the consecration remains upon the head.

Accidental Defilement and Renewal

If someone dies suddenly beside the Nazirite and thereby defiles the consecrated head, the interruption requires a defined sequence of repair. On the seventh day, the Nazirite shaves the head on the day of cleansing; on the eighth, two turtledoves or two young pigeons are brought to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.

The priest offers one bird as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, making atonement for the defilement caused by the dead, and hallows the head again that day. The Nazirite then consecrates the days of the vow anew and brings a year-old he-lamb as a guilt offering. The previous days are declared void because the consecration was defiled: accidental contact does not simply disappear from the reckoning of the vow.

Completion and Offerings

When the consecration period is complete, the Nazirite comes to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting with offerings: an unblemished year-old he-lamb for a burnt offering, an unblemished year-old ewe-lamb for a sin offering, and an unblemished ram for peace offerings. The accompanying grain and drink offerings include a basket of unleavened bread, fine-flour cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil.

After the priest presents and offers the sin and burnt offerings, the ram is offered as a peace offering together with the basket of unleavened bread, its grain offering, and its drink offering. The Nazirite then shaves the consecrated hair at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and places it on the fire beneath the peace offering. The priest sets the ram’s boiled shoulder, one unleavened cake, and one unleavened wafer on the Nazirite’s hands and waves them before the LORD. These portions are holy for the priest, alongside the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering; only after this rite may the Nazirite drink wine again.

The law also recognizes that a person’s means may vary: the prescribed offering is made in addition to what the person can afford, while the vow itself determines the obligation. The ending is therefore both a public ritual transition and the completion of a personal commitment, enacted through offerings, the removal and presentation of the hair, and the restored permission to drink wine.