Nazarites

Nazarites (properly Nazirites, from Heb. nazar, 'to separate'), men or women among the Jews who had consecrated themselves to God by certain acts of abstinence, as refraining from using wine, from shaving their heads, as well as from the defilement of contact with the dead. The law in regard to them is laid down in the Book of Numbers (vi. 1–21). The usual term of the vow was thirty days, but examples of vows for life were the cases of Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist.