Numbers 6

EasyEnglish Bible

People who make special promises to the Lord

6 The Lord said to Moses, ² ‘Tell the Israelites this: “A man or a woman may want to make a special promise to the Lord. That will make him or her separate from other people, as a Nazirite.^{[a] 3} They must not drink wine. They must not drink any alcohol or vinegar. They must not drink the juice of grapes, or eat grapes or raisins. ⁴ They must not eat the seeds of grapes for all the time that they are Nazirites. They must not even eat the skins of grapes.

⁵ A person must not cut his hair during the time that he is a Nazirite. He must be different all the time that he is separate for the Lord. He must let the hair on his head grow long. ⁶ He must not go near a dead body while he is separate for the Lord. ⁷ His hair shows that he is separate for God. So he must not go near a dead body. He must not go near it even if the dead person is his father, mother, brother or sister. ⁸ During the time that the person is a Nazirite, they are holy because they belong to the Lord.

⁹ The Nazirite may be near to a person when that person dies suddenly. Then his head becomes unclean. He must remove all the hair from his head seven days after the person dies. Then he will be clean. ¹⁰ On day 8, he must bring two doves or two young pigeons to the door of the Tent of Meeting. He must give them to the priest. ¹¹ The priest must sacrifice one bird as a sin offering and the other bird as a burnt offering. The priest must do that because the Nazirite sinned. He went too near to a dead body. That will make the Nazirite's head clean again on that same day. ¹² He must begin his time as a Nazirite again, with a new promise to the Lord. He cannot include the days before he became unclean. He must bring a male lamb that is one year old. That is a guilt offering.

¹³ He is a Nazirite for a certain time. When that time finishes, the people must bring him to the door of the Tent of Meeting. ¹⁴ He must offer to the Lord three animals that have nothing wrong with them. He must offer a young male sheep that is one year old. That is a burnt offering. He must offer a young female sheep that is one year old. That is a sin offering. He must offer a male sheep. That is a friendship offering. ¹⁵ And he must bring a basket of bread that people have made without yeast. He must bring cakes that people have made with the best flour and oil. Also, he must bring thin biscuits with oil on them. But they must not have yeast in them either. He must bring the proper grain offerings and drink offerings with them.

¹⁶ The priest must offer those things to the Lord. And he must sacrifice the sin offering and the burnt offering. ¹⁷ Then the priest must sacrifice the male sheep as a friendship offering to the Lord. He must offer the basket of bread. He must give the grain offering and the drink offering with it.

¹⁸ Then the Nazirite must stand at the place where people go into the Tent of Meeting. He must remove all the hair from his head. He must put his hair into the same fire where the priest has cooked the friendship offering.

¹⁹ When the male sheep is cooked, the priest must take its shoulder. Also, he must take one cake and one thin biscuit from the basket. The cake and the biscuit must not have yeast in them. The priest must put these things into the hands of the Nazirite who has removed the hair from his head. ²⁰ The Nazirite must give those things back to the priest. The priest must lift them up to the Lord as a special gift. They are a special gift for the priest. Also, the priest can eat the front part of the sheep and its back leg. After that, the Nazirite can drink wine.”

²¹ Those are the rules about Nazirites. Also, the Nazirite may give anything else that he can give. And he must bring any other gift that he promised to the Lord.’

The priests' blessing

²² The Lord said to Moses, ²³ ‘Tell Aaron and his sons to use these words when they ask me to bless the Israelites.

²⁴ They must say:

²⁷ Aaron and his sons must use my name to bless the Israelites. If they do that, I will certainly bless them.’