Bilangan 6:7

6:7 He must not defile himself even ¹  for his father or his mother or his brother or his sister if they die, ²  because the separation ³  for ⁴  his God is on his head.

Bilangan 17:12

17:12 The Israelites said to Moses, “We are bound to die! ⁵  We perish, we all perish!

Bilangan 24:11

24:11 So now, go back where you came from! ⁶  I said that I would greatly honor you; but now the Lord has stood in the way of your honor.”

[6:7]  ¹ tn The vav (ו) conjunction at the beginning of the clause specifies the cases of corpses that are to be avoided, no matter how painful it might be.

[6:7]  ² tn The construction uses the infinitive construct with the preposition and the suffixed subjective genitive – “in the dying of them” – to form the adverbial clause of time.

[6:7]  sn The Nazirite would defile himself, i.e., ruin his vow, by contacting their corpses. Jesus’ hard saying in Matt 8:22, “let the dead bury their own dead,” makes sense in the light of this passage – Jesus was calling for commitment to himself.

[6:7]  ³ tn The word “separation” here is metonymy of adjunct – what is on his head is long hair that goes with the vow.

[6:7]  ⁴ tn The genitive could perhaps be interpreted as possession, i.e., “the vow of his God,” but it seems more likely that an objective genitive would be more to the point.

[17:12]  ⁵ tn The use of הֵן (hen) and the perfect tense in the nuance of a prophetic perfect expresses their conviction that they were bound to die – it was certain (see GKC 312-13 §106.n).

[24:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “flee to your place.”