Or Nazarim, from Nezer or Nazar, separated. All were called by this name who voluntarily made themselves Nazarites, by their dedicating themselves to God. We have the law at large concerning Nazarites, (Numbers 6:1-27) to which I refer. I only beg to observe concerning Nazarites, that it is evident the design and good pleasure of God the Holy Ghost, in disposing the minds of his people to the vow of the Nazarite, and forming laws so particular as this chapter contains, had all along an eye to Christ, the one great and only true Nazarite. As if the Holy Ghost in this order would keep up in Israel the constant thought of this sanctification and separation towards God, until "he came who for their sakes sanctified himself," is made of God to them sanctification and redemption. (John 17:19 and 1 Corinthians 1:30)
We find in the most degenerate state of the church, there were still persons of this order. The prophet Jeremiah speaks of them in his Book of Lamentations in a very affecting manner: "Her Nazarites (saith he) were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire, their visage is blacker than a coal, they are not not known in the streets." (Lamentations 4:7-8) So the prophet Amos: "I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children Of Israel? saith the Lord. But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not." (Amos 2:11-12) Nothing can be more plain than that this order was altogether typical, when we consider the wretched condition of Israel in both those periods when Jeremiah and Amos exercised their ministry. The whole of both those men's preaching is reproof; and therefore, if at such a time the order of the Nazarites was preserved, and as the Lord himself saith, it was of his raising up, surely it proves to a demonstration, that God the Holy Ghost intended from it, like all the sacrifices under the law, to be continued only until he came in whom all types, shadows, sacrifices, and ordinances centered, and in whom all had their completion, and were done away.