Numbers 6:2
דַּבֵּר אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם אִישׁ אֽוֹ־אִשָּׁה כִּי יַפְלִא לִנְדֹּר נֶדֶר נָזִיר לְהַזִּיר לַֽיהוָֽה׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
דַּבֵּר֙ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וְאָמַרְתָּ֖ אֲלֵהֶ֑ם אִ֣ישׁ אֽוֹ־אִשָּׁ֗ה כִּ֤י יַפְלִא֙ לִנְדֹּר֙ נֶ֣דֶר נָזִ֔יר לְהַזִּ֖יר לַֽיהוָֽה׃
Λάλησον τοῖς υἱοῖς καὶ ἐρεῖς πρὸς αὐτούς Ἀνὴρ ἢ γυνὴ ὃς ἐὰν μεγάλως εὔξηται ἀφαγνίσασθαι ἁγνείαν κυρίῳ
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Loquere ad filios Israël, et dices ad eos: Vir, sive mulier, cum fecerint votum ut sanctificentur, et se voluerint Domino consecrare:
“Habla a los hijos de Israel y diles: ‘Cuando un hombre o una mujer haga un voto especial, el voto de nazareo, para consagrarse a Yehová,
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Habla á los hijos de Israel, y diles: El hombre, ó la mujer, cuando se apartare haciendo voto de Nazareo, para dedicarse á Jehová,
“ Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD,
✦ What the text says
Summary
Numbers 6:2 opens the legal instruction on the Nazirite vow. YHWH commands Moses to tell the Israelites that if a man or a woman makes an extraordinary vow — the vow of a nazir — that person commits to a state of consecration to YHWH.
Key words
- da.Ber ("speak", H1696G) — piel imperative, an intensive command form opening the divine instruction to Moses.
- yaf.Li' ("he will make hard/extraordinary", H6381) — hiphil imperfect, causative form of a verb meaning "to set apart/make distinct"; here it describes making a vow unusual or exceptional, not the vow's difficulty in an ordinary sense.
- li.n.Dor ("to vow", H5087) — qal infinitive, paired with yaf.Li' to form the idiom "makes extraordinary in vowing", i.e., makes a special vow.
- Ne.der na.Zir ("vow of a Nazirite", H5088/H5139) — a construct chain: Ne.der ("vow of") governs na.Zir ("a Nazirite"), specifying the type of vow.
- le.ha.Zir ("to be a Nazirite", H5144B) — hiphil infinitive from the same root as na.Zir, expressing purpose: the vow's aim is to enter a state of separation/consecration.
What the text says
The verse is built as a chain of two verbal commands to Moses: da.Ber ("speak"), followed by ve.'a.mar.Ta ("and you will say"), a sequential perfect that continues the imperative's force rather than introducing a separate temporal action. This construction is typical of legal instruction formulas in the Torah, where an imperative plus vav-consecutive perfect frames a speech to be delivered.
The conditional clause ish 'o 'ishah ki yaf.Li' ("a man or a woman, if he/she makes extraordinary...") uses yaf.Li' in the hiphil, from a root associated with distinguishing or setting something apart as remarkable. Paired with the infinitive li.n.Dor ("in vowing"), the phrase describes the act of making a vow that stands out from ordinary vows. The construct chain Ne.der na.Zir ("vow of a Nazirite") specifies what kind of vow this is, and the final infinitive le.ha.Zir ("to be a Nazirite," from the same root as na.Zir itself) states the purpose clause: the vow is undertaken "to Nazirite" — to enter a consecrated status — laYHWH ("to/for YHWH").
Differences between versions
The LXX renders yaf.Li' ... li.n.Dor Ne.der na.Zir as "μεγάλως εὔξηται" ("vows greatly"), losing the specific term "Nazirite" at this point, and translates le.ha.Zir as "ἀφαγνίσασθαι ἁγνείαν" ("to purify himself with purity"), emphasizing purification rather than separation. The Vulgate similarly omits an explicit Nazirite term, rendering the purpose clause as "ut sanctificentur, et se... Domino consecrare" ("that they be sanctified and consecrate themselves to the Lord"), generalizing where the Hebrew uses the specific root nazir/nazar.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.