Nazarite, Nazariteship

(Num. 6:2)—a word meaning, from the Hebrew language: to separate, to set apart. “All the days of the vow of his separation,” it is said in the Book of Numbers, “…until the days be fulfilled, for the which he separated himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy” (6:8). A Nazarite, whether man or woman, could pronounce the vow of Naziriteship, that is, to drink no wine or other strong drink, to let the hair grow, to enter no house in which there was a dead body, and finally, not to be present at funerals.

If any man or woman happened to die in the presence of one of the Nazarites, then he had to observe again the whole term of his vow, that is, of his Naziriteship. This vow was generally taken for eight days, sometimes for a month, and sometimes for one’s whole life. When the term of it came to an end, the Nazarite offered a sacrifice in the temple, and then the priest cut off a portion of his hair and burned it upon the altar, after which the Nazarite was freed from his vow and could drink wine again (Num. ch. 6).

Some Nazarites were dedicated to God for their whole lives by their parents, from the very cradle, and remained such until their very death: throughout their whole lives they drank no wine and did not cut their hair. Such, for instance, were Samson, the prophet Samuel, and John the Baptist (Judg. 13:4, 5, Luke 1:15, 1 Sam. 1:11). Persons who had pronounced the vow of Naziriteship outside of Palestine, and who had no opportunity to appear at the temple upon the completion of their vow, contented themselves with keeping the abstinence required by the law, and with the cutting of their hair at home, in that locality in which