“ ‘They shall not shave their heads or shave off the corners of their beards or make any cuttings in their flesh.
Parallel Translations
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“ ‘They shall not shave their heads or shave off the corners of their beards or make any cuttings in their flesh.
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They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.
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They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corners of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Leviticus 21:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 14:1 You are the children of Yahweh your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
- Ezekiel 44:20 “ ‘ “They shall not shave their heads, or allow their locks to grow long. They shall only cut off the hair of their heads.
- Leviticus 19:27-28 “ ‘You shall not cut the hair on the sides of your head or clip off the edge of your beard. “ ‘You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you. I am Yahweh.
- Leviticus 10:6 Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons, “Don’t let the hair of your heads go loose, and don’t tear your clothes, so that you don’t die, and so that he will not be angry with all the congregation; but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which Yahweh has kindled.
- Isaiah 15:2 They have gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off.
- Isaiah 22:12 In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth;
- Jeremiah 16:6 Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried. Men won’t lament for them, cut themselves, or make themselves bald for them.
- Jeremiah 48:37 For every head is bald, and every beard clipped. There are cuttings on all the hands, and sackcloth on the waist.
- Amos 8:10 I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.
- Micah 1:16 Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture; for they have gone into captivity from you!
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Lev 21:5 They shall not make baldness upon their…
Lev 21:5 They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.
Ver. 5. They shall not make baldness, &c.] So Lev 19:27. Howbeit in humiliation for sin the Lord God of hosts called them all, both priests and people, to weeping and mourning, {Joe 2:17} yea to baldness and sackcloth. {Isa 22:12} Here we cannot easily overdo.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain To wit, in funerals, as the heathens did: q.…
To wit, in funerals, as the heathens did: q. d. Though I allow them to defile themselves for some of the dead, yet in no case shall they use these superstitious and heathenish rites, which also the people are forbidden to do, Lev 19:27; Deu 14:1, but the priests in a more peculiar manner, because they are by word and example to teach the people their duty not to sorrow for the dead as persons without hope.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain They shall not make baldness upon their head,.... For…
They shall not make baldness upon their head,.... For the dead, as Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Ben Gersom; not shave their heads, or round the corners of them, or make baldness between their eyes on that account; as those things were forbid the Israelites, so the priests also; this and what follow being superstitious customs used among the Heathens in their mournings for the dead, particularly by the Chaldeans, as Aben Ezra observes; and so by the Grecians; when Hephestion, one of Alexander's captains, died, he shaved his soldiers and himself, imitating Achilles in Homer (t); so the Egyptians, mourning for the loss of Osiris, annually shaved their heads (u); and the priests of Isis, mourning for her lost son, are called by Minutius Felix (w) her bald priests; see Lev 19:27,
neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard: the five corners of it; See Gill on Lev 19:27. This the Israelites in common might not do, and particularly their priests; though the Egyptian priests shaved both their heads and beards, as Herodotus (x) relates: and so they are represented in the Table of Isis (y):
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nor make any cuttings in their flesh; either with their nails, tearing their cheeks and breasts, or with an instrument cutting their flesh in any part of their bodies, as was the custom of Heathen nations; such were made by the Egyptians in their mournings (z); See Gill on Lev 19:28.
(t) Aelian. Var. Hist. l. 7. c. 8. (u) Julius Firmicus de Error. Proph. p. 2. (w) In Octavio, p. 22. Vid. Lactant. de fals. Relig. l. 1. c. 21. (x) Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 36. (y) Vid. Pignorii Mens. Isiac. liter. S. (z) Julius Firmicus, ut supra. (u))
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain They shall not make baldness - In funerals, as…
They shall not make baldness - In funerals, as the Heathens did. Though I allow them to defile themselves for some of the dead, yet in no case shall they use these superstitious rites, which also the people were forbidden to do; but the priests in a more peculiar manner, because they are by word and example to teach the people their duty.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 5. They shall not make baldness] See the…
Verse 5. They shall not make baldness] See the note on "Le 19:27". It is supposed that these things were particularly prohibited, because used superstitiously by the Egyptian priests, who, according to Herodotus, shaved the whole body every third day, that there might be no uncleanness about them when they ministered in their temples. This appears to have been a general custom among the heathen. In the book of Baruch, 6:31, the priests of Babylon are represented sitting in their temples, with their clothes rent, and their heads and beards shaven, and having nothing upon their heads. Every person knows the tonsure of the Catholic priests. Should not this be avoided as an approach to a heathenish custom?
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Lev 21:5. They shall not make baldness — In…
Lev 21:5. They shall not make baldness — In funerals, as the heathen did. Though I allow them to defile themselves for some of the dead, yet in no case shall they use these superstitious rites, which also the people were forbidden to do; but the priests in a more peculiar manner, because they were by word and example to teach the people their duty.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain These prohibitions given to the people at large (compare…
These prohibitions given to the people at large (compare the margin reference.) had a special fitness for the Hebrew priests. They were the instruments of the divine will for averting death, all their sacrifices were a type of the death of Christ, which swallowed up death in victory 1Co 15:54-57, and it would therefore have been unsuitable that they should have the same freedom as other people to become mourners.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Flesh. This would indicate an important grief, and want…
Flesh. This would indicate an important grief, and want of patience. (Haydock) --- They were not allowed to put on the usual signs of mourning, as the common people were, provided they did it not in honour of an idol, chap. xix. 27.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain They shall not make baldness upon their heads .…
They shall not make baldness upon their heads . . . nor . . . cuttings in their flesh--The superstitious marks of sorrow, as well as the violent excesses in which the heathen indulged at the death of their friends, were forbidden by a general law to the Hebrew people (Lev 19:28). But the priests were to be laid under a special injunction, not only that they might exhibit examples of piety in the moderation of their grief, but also by the restraint of their passions, be the better qualified to administer the consolations of religion to others, and show, by their faith in a blessed resurrection, the reasons for sorrowing not as those who have no hope.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 5. Not make baldness — This forbids the priests…
5. Not make baldness — This forbids the priests to shave a bald place above the forehead “between the eyes” — a practice customary in mourning for the dead, as is seen in Deu_14:1, where it is forbidden to all Israelites. It was allowed to the Nazarite when his time of separation had expired. Num_6:18; Act_18:18; Act_21:24.
Beard… cuttings in their flesh — See Lev_19:27-28, notes. St. Paul, not without indignation, refers to this prohibition (ου κατατεμνουσιν) when he stigmatizes the antichristian Jews as την κατατομην, the mutilation.
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Php_3:2. In Jer_9:26; Jer_25:23 we have a valuable marginal reading, “having the corners of their hair polled,” or “those with whiskers cropped,” as descriptive of the Arabians. It seems to have been the purpose of the lawgiver to keep the Israelites distinct from other nations in their very countenances.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. See on Lev_19:27-28.
5. See on Lev_19:27-28.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (5) Make baldness upon their head.—The natural expression of…
(5) Make baldness upon their head.—The natural expression of grief, however, which the priests were to manifest for the above-named departed relations, was not to show itself in the practices which disfigure their bodily appearance, and which obtained among other nations of antiquity in connection with funeral ceremonies. Thus, in the graphic description of the idolatrous priests mourning, we are told “the priests sit in their temples, having their clothes rent, and their heads and beards shaven, and nothing upon their heads.” (Bar_6:31.) The three things here prohibited to the priests are also forbidden to the people at large under other circumstances. (See Lev_19:27-28; Deu_14:1.) The ordinary Israelites, however, indulged in the same practices. (See Jer_16:6; Eze_7:18; Amo_8:10.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 21:5 shave . . . trim: See study notes…
21:5 shave . . . trim: See study notes on 10:6; 19:27. • cut their bodies: See study note on 19:28. Self-mutilation was a pagan custom. Just as defects of any kind precluded most animals as offerings (22:19-25), a defect similarly precluded a priest from officiating (see 21:17-23). For example, a eunuch could not serve as a priest (Deut 23:1) because he was not an adequate representative of the people. However, his priestly lineage was recognized as qualifying him to eat his priestly share (see Lev 21:22). On the other hand, uncleanness disqualified any priest from ministry and from eating the priest’s share as long as the condition persisted (22:2-8).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.