🔢WEB · Numbers 6:13
What does Numbers 6:13 mean?
"“‘This is the law of the Nazirite: when the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall be brought to the door of the Tent of Meeting,"
— Numbers 6:13 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the door of the Tent of Meeting.
The priest shall offer one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned by reason of the dead, and shall make his head holy that same day.
He shall separate to Yahweh the days of his separation, and shall bring a male lamb a year old for a trespass offering; but the former days shall be void, because his separation was defiled.
“‘This is the law of the Nazirite: when the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall be brought to the door of the Tent of Meeting,
and he shall offer his offering to Yahweh, one male lamb a year old without defect for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb a year old without defect for a sin offering, and one ram without defect for peace offerings,
and a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and their meal offering, and their drink offerings.
The priest shall present them before Yahweh, and shall offer his sin offering, and his burnt offering.
Explanation
Numbers 6:13 introduces the closing section of the Nazirite law, a set of instructions describing what a person must do once their period of special vowed separation to God comes to an end. In plain language, the verse simply states that when the fixed time of the Nazirite vow was completed, the person under the vow was to come to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting — the tabernacle, Israel's portable place of worship in the wilderness — to undergo the rituals that would formally close out that vow. This verse functions as a heading or introduction, announcing that what follows (verses 14-21) will detail the specific offerings and rites required at the conclusion of the vow.
The context is the book of Numbers, traditionally attributed to Moses, addressed to the Israelites during their wilderness wanderings after the exodus from Egypt. Numbers 6 as a whole lays out the law of the Nazirite vow, a voluntary commitment any Israelite man or woman could make to set themselves apart for a period of special devotion to the Lord. During this time, the Nazirite abstained from wine and grape products, let their hair grow uncut, and avoided contact with the dead, even family members. This chapter establishes both how to begin the vow and, in the verses following our text, how to properly end it — since a vow made to God could not simply be dropped but required a formal, sacred conclusion.
Theologically, this verse highlights the seriousness with which Israel treated vows made to God. Separation for God's purposes had a beginning and, importantly, a structured ending that involved returning to God's presence at
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