Numbers 6:20

20 And the priest shall present them as an offering before the Lord; it shall be the holy portion for the priest beside the breast of the heave-offering and beside the shoulder of the wave-offering: and afterwards the votary shall 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.


FOOTNOTES:

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

Numbers 6:20 In-Context

18 And he that has vowed shall shave the head of his consecration by the doors of the tabernacle of witness, and shall put the hairs on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace-offering.
19 And the priest shall take the sodden shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened loaf from the basket, and one unleavened cake, and shall put them on the hands of the votary after he has shaved off his
20 And the priest shall present them as an offering before the Lord; it shall be the holy portion for the priest beside the breast of the heave-offering and beside the shoulder of the wave-offering: and afterwards the votary shall drink wine.
21 This is the law of the votary who shall have vowed to the Lord his gift to the Lord, concerning his vow, besides what he may be able to afford according to the value of his vow, which he may have vowed according to the law of separation.
22 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.