Numbers 6:20

20 Then the priest will lift them up as a special offering before the LORD . These are holy portions for the priest, along with the breast of the special offering and the thigh of the sacred offering that are lifted up before the LORD . After this ceremony the Nazirites may again 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 “Then the Nazirites will shave their heads at the entrance of the Tabernacle. They will take the hair that had been dedicated and place it on the fire beneath the peace-offering sacrifice.

19 After the Nazirite’s head has been shaved, the priest will take for each of them the boiled shoulder of the ram, and he will take from the basket a cake and a wafer made without yeast. He will put them all into the Nazirite’s hands.

20 Then the priest will lift them up as a special offering before the LORD . These are holy portions for the priest, along with the breast of the special offering and the thigh of the sacred offering that are lifted up before the LORD . After this ceremony the Nazirites may again drink wine.

21 “This is the ritual law of the Nazirites, who vow to bring these offerings to the LORD . They may also bring additional offerings if they can afford it. And they must be careful to do whatever they vowed when they set themselves apart as Nazirites.”

22 Then the LORD said to Moses,