Day 43 Numbers 5-6

            Anyone with a skin disease or who has become unclean through contact with a dead body must be sent away from camp.

            There is a special magic spell given in Numbers chapter 5 for determining whether or not your wife has been faithful.  You have to take her to the priests with some special offerings and they mix a potion for her to drink.  If she’s been fooling around on you then the draught will make her swell and then miscarry, but if she’s been faithful then she will be able to have children still.

            Another way to show dedication to the Lord is to take a vow as a Nazarite.  For a certain amount of time that you determine at the outset you may not drink any fermented beverage or eat or drink anything that has ever had anything to do with grapes.  You may not cut your hair, because your hair during this time is symbolic of your vow and so it’s holy.  You absolutely may not have anything to do with a dead body.  For serious.  If your mother or father dies you may not have anything to do with the burial.  If you’re in a room with someone and they drop dead faster than you are able to run out of the building, then you have to go to the priests, shave your head, offer a bunch of sacrifices and then start your time over again because God has exactly zero tolerance for you being around a dead body.

            At the end of your time as a Nazarite you cut off your hair and offer a bunch of sacrifices.  Nothing really happens, but you get to show your devotion to God, so that’s nice.  There are no time requirements given so I guess you could vow to be a Nazarite for like a day, but it doesn’t really make much sense unless you do it for long enough to allow your hair to grow out noticeably, so that’s at least a month or two.

            I can’t find any information on what this word ‘Nazarite’ actually means.  I always though it had at least some tacit connection to the town of Nazareth, and I’m sure there are plenty of medieval bible ‘scholars’ who were happy to make that jump as well, but it doesn’t sound like there’s really anything out there to back it up.  All the etymology sources I can find keep directing me back to this same chapter, which only says what a Nazarite is, but not why they are so named.  Oh well, I’m open to hearing new information if anyone has any.

            The section ends with a new blessing for the priests to give to the people of Israel, and so that is also how I will end.

The LORD bless you
   and keep you;
²⁵ the LORD make his face shine on you
   and be gracious to you;
²⁶ the LORD turn his face toward you
   and give you peace.