Nazirites whiter than snow; sapphire limbs

Symmachus: “her unmarked ones set apart than snow, brighter than milk, redder in habit beyond the admired things, sapphire their limbs.” He means those who consecrated themselves to God; for “consecrated ones” is what Nazirites shows—thus Symmachus and Theodotion in Amos rendered the consecrated ones, having said Nazirites. Moses also mentions these; and such was also Samson. And among Jews they were also eminent. For which reason he compared their purity to snow, and their brightness to milk; and they were fired, having been tested by the askesis of what they were promising to God; and their elect (which is the “fragment”) have a heavenly way of life; for such is sapphire’s color. And it also has goldish veins, to which indeed Symmachus likens their habit, having the incorrupt and the fiery according to piety.