Numbers 6:9
But if any man die suddenly before him: the head of his consecration shall be defiled: and he shall shave it forthwith on the same day of his purification, and again on the seventh day.
Open Numbers 6:9 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Sin autem mortuus fuerit subito quispiam coram eo, polluetur caput consecrationis ejus : quod radet illico in eadem die purgationis suæ, et rursum septima.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐὰν δέ τις ἀποθάνῃ ἐξάπινα ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ, παραχρῆμα μιανθήσεται ἡ κεφαλὴ εὐχῆς αὐτοῦ, καὶ ξυρήσεται τὴν κεφαλήν αὐτοῦ ᾗ ἂν ἡμέρᾳ καθαρισθῇ· τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ ξυρηθήσεται.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְכִֽי יָמ֨וּת מֵ֤ת עָלָיו֙ בְּפֶ֣תַע פִּתְאֹ֔ם וְטִמֵּ֖א רֹ֣אשׁ נִזְר֑וֹ וְגִלַּ֤ח רֹאשׁוֹ֙ בְּי֣וֹם טָהֳרָת֔וֹ בַּיּ֥וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֖י יְגַלְּחֶֽנּוּ
Haydock's commentary
Day. That none might escape; (Theodoret, q. 11,) though the Hebrew may imply that the hair was only shaved on the ninth day, when he was to be purified, chap. xix. 12. Then the Nazarite had to begin again, as if he had done nothing, (Calmet) if his vow were only for a time. Those who had taken a vow for life never shaved.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Clement of Alexandria The Instructor, Chapter II. Our Instructor’s Treatment of Our Sins
And the Instructor, as I think, very beautifully says, through Moses: “If any one die suddenly by him, straightway the head of his consecration shall be polluted, and shall be shaved,” designating involuntary sin as sudden death. And He says that it pollutes by defiling the soul: wherefore He prescribes the cure with all speed, advising the head to be instantly shaven; that is, counselling the locks of ignorance which shade the reason to be shorn clean off, that reason (whose seat is in the brain), being left bare of the dense stuff of vice, may speed its way to repentance. Then after a few remarks He adds, “The days before are not reckoned irrational,” by which manifestly sins are meant which are contrary to reason. …