Absalom's person and family

26. polled From poll, the head, comes the verb to poll, to cut the hair.

two hundred shekels after the king's weight If the royal shekel was the same as the sacred shekel, two hundred shekels would be about six pounds, an extraordinary weight. But perhaps the royal shekel was smaller, or as is so often the case with numbers, there may be some error in the text. It was not considered effeminate for men to wear their hair long: the Nazarites did so (Numbers 6:5), and Josephus says that Solomon's body-guard had long flowing hair. Modern Arabs frequently allow the hair to grow to its natural length.

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