The Biblical Nazir הנזיר

(1) Sang Deborah, and Barak son of Abinoam, on that day, saying: (2) "When hair grows wild in Israel, when people volunteer themselves—Bless the Eternal LORD!" (original transl.)

(2) Speak to the Israelites and say to them: If anyone, man or woman, explicitly utters a nazirite’s vow, to set himself apart for the LORD, (3) he shall abstain from wine and any other intoxicant; he shall not drink vinegar of wine or of any other intoxicant, neither shall he drink anything in which grapes have been steeped, nor eat grapes fresh or dried. (4) Throughout his term as nazirite, he may not eat anything that is obtained from the grapevine, even seeds or skin. (5) Throughout the term of his vow as nazirite, no razor shall touch his head; it shall remain consecrated until the completion of his term as nazirite of the LORD, the hair of his head being left to grow untrimmed. (6) Throughout the term that he has set apart for the LORD, he shall not go in where there is a dead person. (7) Even if his father or mother, or his brother or sister should die, he must not defile himself for them, since hair set apart for his God^-c is upon his head: (8) throughout his term as nazirite he is consecrated to the LORD.

(2) Instruct the Israelites to remove from camp anyone with an eruption or a discharge and anyone defiled by a corpse. (3) Remove male and female alike; put them outside the camp so that they do not defile the camp of those in whose midst I dwell. (4) The Israelites did so, putting them outside the camp; as יהוה had spoken to Moses, so the Israelites did.

(6) Speak to the Israelites: When men or women individually commit any wrong toward a fellow human being, thus breaking faith with יהוה, and they realize their guilt, (7) they shall confess the wrong that they have done. They shall make restitution in the principal amount and add one-fifth to it, giving it to the one who was wronged. (8) If that party [is deceased and] has no kin to whom restitution can be made, the amount repaid shall go to יהוה for the priest—in addition to the ram of expiation with which expiation is made on their behalf. (9) So, too, any gift among the sacred donations that the Israelites offer shall be the priest’s. (10) And each shall retain his sacred donations: each priest shall keep what is given to him.

(17) Be not overeager to go^-k to the House of God: more acceptable is obedience than the offering of fools, for they know nothing [but] to do wrong. (1) Keep your mouth from being rash, and let not your throat be quick to bring forth speech before God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth; that is why your words should be few. (2) Just as dreams come with much brooding, so does foolish utterance come with much speech.

(3) An angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “You are barren and have borne no children; but you shall conceive and bear a son. (4) Now be careful not to drink wine or other intoxicant, or to eat anything unclean. (5) For you are going to conceive and bear a son; let no razor touch his head, for the boy is to be a nazirite to God from the womb on. He shall be the first to deliver Israel from the Philistines.”

(9) If a person dies suddenly near him, defiling his consecrated hair, he shall shave his head on the day he becomes clean; he shall shave it on the seventh day. (10) On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two pigeons to the priest, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. (11) The priest shall offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and make expiation on his behalf for the guilt that he incurred through the corpse. That same day he shall reconsecrate his head (12) and rededicate to the LORD his term as nazirite; and he shall bring a lamb in its first year as a penalty offering. The previous period shall be void, since his consecrated hair was defiled.

(11) And I raised up prophets from among your sonsAnd nazirites from among your young men.Is that not so, O people of Israel?—says the LORD. (12) But you made the nazirites drink wineAnd ordered the prophets not to prophesy. (13) Ah, I will slow your movementsAs a wagon is slowedWhen it is full of cut grain.^-b (14) Flight shall fail the swift,The strong shall find no strength,And the warrior shall not save his life.

(13) This is the ritual for the nazirite: On the day that his term as nazirite is completed, he shall be brought to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. (14) As his offering to the LORD he shall present: one male lamb in its first year, without blemish, for a burnt offering; one ewe lamb in its first year, without blemish, for a sin offering; one ram without blemish for an offering of well-being; (15) a basket of unleavened cakes of choice flour with oil mixed in, and unleavened wafers spread with oil; and the proper meal offerings and libations. (16) The priest shall present them before the LORD and offer the sin offering and the burnt offering. (17) He shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of well-being to the LORD, together with the basket of unleavened cakes; the priest shall also offer the meal offerings and the libations. (18) The nazirite shall then shave his consecrated hair, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and take the locks of his consecrated hair and put them on the fire that is under the sacrifice of well-being. (19) The priest shall take the shoulder of the ram when it has been boiled, one unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and place them on the hands of the nazirite after he has shaved his consecrated hair. (20) The priest shall elevate them as an elevation offering before the LORD; and this shall be a sacred donation for the priest, in addition to the breast of the elevation offering and the thigh of gift offering. After that the nazirite may drink wine. (21) Such is the obligation of a nazirite; except that he who vows an offering to the LORD of what he can afford, beyond his nazirite requirements, must do exactly according to the vow that he has made beyond his obligation as a nazirite.

(12) How can I repay the LORDfor all His bounties to me? (13) I raise the cup of deliveranceand invoke the name of the LORD. (14) I will pay my vows to the LORDin the presence of all His people.

(3) When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. For He has no pleasure in fools; what you vow, fulfill. (4) It is better not to vow at all than to vow and not fulfill. (5) Don’t let your mouth bring you into disfavor, and don’t plead before the messenger that it was an error, but fear God;^-c else God may be angered by your talk and destroy your possessions. (6) For much dreaming leads to futility and to superfluous talk.

(18) Sensing that he had confided everything to her, Delilah sent for the lords of the Philistines, with this message: “Come up once more, for he has confided everything to me.” And the lords of the Philistines came up and brought the money with them. (19) She lulled him to sleep on her lap. Then she called in a man, and she had him cut off the seven locks of his head; thus she weakened him and made him helpless: his strength slipped away from him. (20) She cried, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” And he awoke from his sleep, thinking he would break loose and shake himself free as he had the other times. For he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.

(22) After his hair was cut off, it began to grow back.

(28) Then Samson called to the LORD, “O Lord GOD! Please remember me, and give me strength just this once, O God, to take revenge of the Philistines, if only for one of my two eyes.” (29) He embraced the two middle pillars that the temple rested upon, one with his right arm and one with his left, and leaned against them; (30) Samson cried, “Let me die with the Philistines!” and he pulled with all his might. The temple came crashing down on the lords and on all the people in it. Those who were slain by him as he died outnumbered those who had been slain by him when he lived. (31) His brothers and all his father’s household came down and carried him up and buried him in the tomb of his father Manoah, between Zorah and Eshtaol. He had led Israel for twenty years.

In the case of unspecified naziriteship, where one does not state how long he wishes to be a nazirite, the term lasts for thirty days. If one said: I am hereby a nazirite for one long term, or: I am hereby a nazirite for one short term, or even if one said: I am hereby a nazirite from now until the end of the world, in all these cases he is a nazirite for thirty days. If one said: I am hereby a nazirite and one day, or: I am hereby a nazirite and one hour, or: I am hereby a nazirite for one and a half, he becomes a nazirite for two consecutive terms of naziriteship. When he says: I am hereby a nazirite, he accepts upon himself one thirty-day term of naziriteship. When he subsequently adds an additional amount of time, e.g., an extra day, he thereby accepts upon himself an additional term of naziriteship, and the minimal term of naziriteship is thirty days. One who says: I am hereby a nazirite for thirty days and one hour, becomes a nazirite for thirty-one days, as there is no naziriteship for hours but only for full days.