Numbers 6:2

Verse 2. Sanctified, and separated from the common sort of people, and obliged to observe abstinence like the Nazarites, as the Hebrew intimates in one word, nazir. All this was done to acquire greater sanctity and perfection. Septuagint “whoever has made a great vow to be very pure to the Lord,” and intends thus to signalize his zeal for God’s glory. The original term means also to distinguish oneself by a wonderful thing. There were Nazarites for life, like Samson and Saint John the Baptist; and others for a limited time, like Saint Paul. Their abstinence from wine, and so forth lasted generally for a month, and was to be performed at Jerusalem. Those of the female sex could not bind themselves by vow till they were ten years and a day old, nor boys before they were full 13. Calmet.—The custom of cutting the hair, in honour of some god, was very common among the pagans; and S. Cyril (de ador. 16,) seems to think that the Hebrews had seen it practised in Egypt, and that Moses judged it expedient to let them do so for the sake of the true God, in order to divert their minds from giving way to superstition. Calmet.—The Hebrews made vows to abstain from wine for 30 days, and then to offer sacrifices, and to cut their hair, when they were attacked by any dangerous illness. Josep. Bel. ii. 15. Saint Paul perhaps made a vow of this nature, in the perils of the sea. Acts 18:11. Spencer, Rit. iii. 6. Juvenal alludes to this custom, when he observes, that sailors with their heads shaved, delight in safety to recount the dangers to which they have been exposed:

Gaudent ubi vertice raso,

Garrula securi narrare pericula Nautæ. (Sat. ii.)