Numbers 6:20

20 The priest is to wave them as a presentation offering before the Lord.^[a] It is a holy portion for the priest, in addition to the breast of the presentation offering and the thigh of the contribution.^[b] After that, the Nazirite may drink wine.

Numbers 6:20 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 6:20

And the priest shall wave them [for] a wave offering before
the Lord
Putting his hands under the Nazarite's, as in other cases where this ceremony was used; and so moving them to and fro, backwards and forwards, upwards and downwards, testifying hereby the goodness of God unto him, his sovereign dominion over him, that all he had depended on him, and was received from him; and that all he did, particularly in keeping his vow of Nazariteship, was through his assistance, and for which he made this grateful acknowledgment by delivering the above, together with what follows, to his priest:

this [is] holy for the priest, with the wave breast and heave shoulder;
besides these which were given him by another law, the wave shoulder of the Nazarite's ram was given him to eat; it was holy, and set apart for his use, and his only, and it belonged not in common to the course of the priests then on duty, but to him only that officiated in this peculiar service; and so it is observed by the Jewish writers ^F3, that the Nazarite's ram and some other things were not given to every priest, but to him that offered the sacrifice, as it is said, "he shall wave this is holy to the priest"; upon which it is observed, that it follows from hence, that the priest that waves is he that eats the sacrifice:

and after that the Nazarite may drink wine;
and cut his hair, and shave his head, and be defiled for the dead as other persons, the vow of his Nazariteship being fulfilled.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 Maimon. in Misn. Challah, c. 4. sect. 9.

Numbers 6:20 In-Context

18 "The Nazirite is to shave his consecrated head at the entrance to the tent of meeting, take the hair from his head, and put [it] on the fire under the fellowship sacrifice.

19 The priest is to take the boiled shoulder from the ram, one unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and put [them] into the hands of the Nazirite after he has shaved his consecrated head.

20 The priest is to wave them as a presentation offering before the Lord. It is a holy portion for the priest, in addition to the breast of the presentation offering and the thigh of the contribution. After that, the Nazirite may drink wine.

21 "This is the ritual of the Nazirite who vows his offering to the Lord for his consecration, in addition to whatever else he can afford; he must fulfill whatever vow he makes in keeping with the ritual for his consecration."

22 The Lord spoke to Moses:

Footnotes

• [a]. Ex 29:25-27
• [b]. Ex 25:2-3; 29:27-28; Lv 7:14,32,34