Commentary on Harmony of the Law Volume 1 Complete John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
20. And the priest shall wave them for a wave-offering before the Lord: this is holy for the priest, with the wave-breast and heave-shoulder: and after that the Nazarite may drink wine.
20. Et elevabit ea sacerdos elevatione coram Jehova: sanetitas est sacerdotii ultra pectusculum elevationis, et ultra armum exaltationis, et postea bibat Nazaraeus vinum.
21. This is the law of the Nazarite who hath vowed, and of his offering unto the Lord for his separation, besides that that his hand shall get: according to the vow which he vowed, so he must do after the law of his separation.
21. Haec est lex Nazaraei qui voverit, et oblationis ejus Jehovae pro separatione sua, praeter id quod attinget manus ejus: secundum votum suum quod voverit, sic faciet secundum legem separationis suae.
2 When either man, or woman shall separate themselves. God recently appointed a tribute for every soul, whereby the Israelites were to acknowledge that they were His children. By that profession, then, he bound them all to Himself from the least to the greatest. A closer tie of obligation is now treated of, when any should voluntarily devote himself to God for a season. These were called Nazarites, which is equivalent to separate or select, because there was greater dignity or excellence in them than in the common people. For they were as ornaments to the Church, and God willed that His peculiar glory should shine brightly in them. When, therefore, Amos expostulates with them (Amos 2:11) because they had prevented the prophets from exercising their office, and had corrupted the Nazarites with wine, he says, in amplification of their crime, that they bad been honored with a special blessing, when God had created of their sons Nazarites and prophets. And when Jeremiah deplores the desolation of the Church, he insists on this corruption, that their Nazarites no longer appeared as of old, "purer than snow," etc. (Lamentations 4:7.) Nor is it to be doubted, that when Jacob distinguished Joseph his son by the title of a Nazarite331 among his brethren, (Genesis 49:26,) he alluded in the spirit of prophecy to that degree of honor in which afterwards, under the Law, they stood who separated themselves unto God, as the lights of the Church. Therefore, although this consecration pertained not to the whole people, yet it should be deservedly reckoned amongst the exercises of piety, because the Nazarites were like standard-bearers to shew others the way; and though they did not
The Hebrew word rendered separate in the A. V of Genesis 49:26, is,נזירNazir. — W. Vide C. in loco.