Numbers 6:9 (LSB)

Passage

‘But if a man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles the head of hair during his Nazirite vow, then he shall shave his head on the day when he becomes clean; he shall shave it on the seventh day.

Nearby Context

Numbers 6:7 He shall not defile himself for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die, because the Nazirite vow to his God is on his head.

Numbers 6:8 All the days of his Nazirite vow he is holy to Yahweh.

Numbers 6:9 ‘But if a man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles the head of hair during his Nazirite vow, then he shall shave his head on the day when he becomes clean; he shall shave it on the seventh day.

Numbers 6:10 Then on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the doorway of the tent of meeting.

Numbers 6:11 And the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering and make atonement for him concerning his sin because of the dead person. And that same day he shall set apart his head as holy,

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "dies", "very", "suddenly", "beside", "defiles", "head", "hair", and "during". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "dies" and "very", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 8's "All the days of his Nazirite vow..." into verse 10's "Then on the eighth day he shall...", so "dies" and "very" belong inside that flow. In Numbers context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "dies" and "very" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.