What To Do In The Case of an Accidental Breach of Vow (Numbers 6:9-12).
“ And if any man die very suddenly beside him, and he defiles the head of his separation, then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing. On the seventh day shall he shave it.”
It may, however, be that by accident he comes in contact with the dead because of the sudden and unexpected death of someone next to him. This would defile the head of his separation, the very hair that declared him holy. In that case his hair must be cut off. It had been defiled. It was no longer the sign of his separation, which had ceased. It was unavoidable. Anyone who touched the dead body of a man was unclean for seven days (Numbers 19:11).
On the third day he was to purify himself by having the ‘water of uncleanness' sprinkled on him, and as a result on the seventh day he would be clean (19:12). This was ‘the day of his cleansing'. Thus having carried through this procedure like any other Israelite must, the defiled Nazirite would be clean on the seventh day. That was the point at which he must cut off his hair so as to begin again. Without that he would not, in his case, be clean. The hair was defiled. It would have to be replaced by new hair. It was then too that he would wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and wait until the evening when he would be clean (Numbers 19:19), and ready to renew his vow.
“ And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tent of meeting, and the priest shall offer one for a purification for sin offering, and the other for a whole burnt offering (‘an offering that goes up'), and make atonement for him, because he sinned by reason of the dead, and he shall hallow his head that same day.”
But because he had broken his Nazirite vow atonement had to be made. So on the eighth day he was to bring two turtle-doves or two young pigeons to the priest, to ‘the door of the Tent of Meeting' (that is within the courtyard where the altar was), and the priest would offer one for a purification for sin offering and one for a whole burnt offering. By this atonement would be made because he had ‘sinned' by touching the dead and breaking his vow. Then he would hallow his head by renewing his vow and beginning again.
“ And he shall separate to Yahweh the days of his separation, and shall bring a he-lamb a year old for a trespass-offering; but the former days shall be void, because his separation was defiled.”
He must then once again separate himself to Yahweh for the same period as previously, separating off those days as the days of his vow, and bring a one year old lamb as a guilt offering. This sacrifice always demonstrated that Yahweh's rights had been breached. But the days that he had already served would not count, for what had happened had defiled that period of separation.
One important lesson from this is that what we have promised to God we must perform. If something interferes we must begin again. We must under no circumstances just assume that as something has happened which has prevented us we are free from our obligation. Vows to God are voluntary. But once made they are binding. It is also an assurance that we need not despair. We may find that we have failed in our consecration. We meant it so genuinely, and yet we have let God down. We have here the assurance that we can begin again.