Numbers 6:20

Numbers 6:20, in plain English

The priest waves these portions as a wave offering before God, they become a holy portion for the priest, and then—finally—the Nazirite may drink wine again.

Why it's here

The wave offering is a way of formally presenting something to God before it becomes the priest's portion. It's a final blessing. And then, the last phrase is beautiful: 'the Nazirite may drink wine.' After abstaining for the entire period, wine is once again permitted. It marks the official end of the vow. The Nazirite can return to normal life, not as someone who failed or was incomplete, but as someone who finished well.

Who's speaking

God, concluding the entire Nazirite law with the formal completion.

Where it sits in the story

The Nazirite vow is complete. Someone has made a serious commitment to God, fulfilled it, and now returns to regular life enriched by that experience. They're free again—but forever changed by their consecration.

The scholarly reading

The priest waves these items before the Lord as a sacred wave offering; this portion belongs to the priest along with other prescribed portions—and then the Nazirite is freed to drink wine again.

Language and setting

The wave offering (תנופה) represents the most solemn form of priestly presentation—moving the offering before the divine presence. The notation that these are 'holy portions for the priest' (קדש הוא לכהן) links the Nazirite's completion to priestly sustenance; their sanctities intertwine. Critically, the restriction on wine—the defining characteristic of the entire vow—now lifts. The Nazirite returns to ordinary Israelite life, though transformed by the vow's experience.

Voice

Divine instruction concluding the Nazirite ritual law

Significance

This conclusion emphasizes that the Nazirite vow, however intense, remains temporally bounded—a season of heightened consecration that concludes in reintegration. This logic of vow, consecration, completion, and return will profoundly shape Christian monastic practice and Reformation debates about whether all Christians should live in perpetual consecration or whether the vow-model applies only to particular vocations.

18Then at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the Nazirite is to shave his consecrated head, take the hair, and put it on the fire under the peace offering.

19And 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 who has just shaved the hair of his consecration.

20The priest shall then wave them as a wave offering before the LORD. This is a holy portion for the priest, in addition to the breast of the wave offering and the thigh that was presented. After that, the Nazirite may drink wine.

21This is the law of the Nazirite who vows his offering to the LORD for his separation, in addition to whatever else he can afford; he must fulfill whatever vow he makes, according to the law of his separation.”

22Then the LORD said to Moses,

Read all of Numbers 6 — A voluntary act of radical devotion — and at the end, the most beautiful blessing in Scripture: the Lord bless you and keep you.