Leviticus 19:28

_YE SHALL NOT MAKE ANY CUTTINGS IN YOUR FLESH FOR THE DEAD, NOR PRINT ANY MARKS UPON YOU: I AM THE LORD._ Ye shall not make any cuttings ... The practice of making deep gashes on the face and arms and legs, in time of bereavement, was universal among the pagan, and it was deemed a becoming mark of respect for the dead, as well as a sort of propitiatory offering to the deities who presided over death and the grave. The Jews learned this custom in Egypt; and, though weaned from it, relapsed in a later and degenerate age into this old superstition (Deuteronomy 14:1; Isaiah 15:2; Jeremiah 16:6; Jeremiah 41:5;...

Verse 28. _ANY CUTTINGS IN YOUR FLESH FOR THE DEAD_] That the ancients were very violent in their grief, tearing the hair and face, beating the breast, c., is well known. Virgil represents the sister of Dido "tearing her face with her nails, and beating her breast with her fists." "Unguibus ora _soror_ foedans, _et_ pectora pugnis." AEn., l. iv., ver. 672. _NOR PRINT ANY MARKS UPON YOU_] It was a very ancient and a very general custom to carry marks on the body in honour of the object of their worship. All the castes of the Hindoos bear on their foreheads or elsewhere what are called the _sectarian_ _marks_, which distinguish them, not only in a civil but also in a religious point of view, from each other. Most of the barbarous nations lately discovered have their faces, arms, breasts, c., c

Certain pagan customs, several of them connected with magic, are here grouped together. The prohibition to eat anything with the blood may indeed refer to the eating of meat which had not been properly bled in slaughtering (Leviticus 7:26; Leviticus 17:10, etc.): but it is not improbable that there may be a special reference to some sort of magical or idolatrous rites. Compare Ezekiel 33:25. Leviticus 19:26 OBSERVE TIMES - It is not clear whether the original word refers to the fancied distinction between lucky and unlucky days, to some mode of drawing

EXPOSITION From the prohibition of moral uncleanness exhibiting itself in the form of incest and licentiousness, the legislator proceeds to a series of laws and commandments against other kinds of immorality, inculcating piety, righteousness, and kindness. Leviticus 19:1 may be regarded as an extension of the previous chapter in this direction, after which the subject of Leviticus 18:1, is again taken up in Leviticus 20:1. The precepts now given are not arranged systematically, though, as Keil has remarked, "while_ _grouped together rather according to a loose association of ideas than according to any logical arrangement, they are all linked together by the common purpose expressed in th

YE SHALL NOT MAKE ANY CUTTINGS IN YOUR FLESH FOR THE DEAD,.... Either with their nails, tearing their cheeks and other parts, or with any instrument, knife, razor, c. Jarchi says, it was the custom of the Amorites, when anyone died, to cut their flesh, as it was of the Scythians, as Herodotus d relates, even those of the royal family for a king they cut off a part of the ear, shaved the hair round about, cut the arms about, wounded the forehead and nose, and transfixed the left hand with arrows; and so the Carthaginians, who might receive it from the Phoenicians, being a colony of theirs, used to tear their hair and mouths in mourning, and beat their breasts e; and with the Romans the women used to tear their cheeks in such a manner that it was forbid by the law of the twelve tables, which some have thought was taken from hence: and all this was done to appease the infernal deities, and...

2. DIFFERENT DUTIES CHAPTER 19 _ 1. Honoring parents and fearing God (Leviticus 19:1)_ 2. The care of the poor (Leviticus 19:9) 3. Against stealing and lying (Leviticus 19:11) 4. Against oppression (Leviticus 19:13) 5. Against unrighteousness in judgment (Leviticus 19:15) 6. Thou shalt love thy neighbor (Leviticus 19:17) 7. Different commands and prohibitions ...

MISCELLANEOUS PRECEPTS, all found elsewhere, except the last. Most of the forbidden actions have some magical significance, _e.g._ cutting the hair in a special fashion, or maiming oneself (originally, to delude the dangerous spirits of the dead while they are still near, at or after a funeral, or perhaps as a respectful offering to them, see p. 110). Leviticus 19:29 probably refers to the licentious cults of nature and other pagan deities. For Leviticus 19:31, _cf_. 1 Samuel 28:8 ff., Deuteronomy 18:11; Isaiah 8:19. Note that w

CUTTINGS.. practice in Canaanitish heathen worship. Compare Leviticus 21:5. Deu 14:1. 1 Kings 18:28; Jeremiah 48:37. THE DEAD. a dead soul. Hebrew. _nephesh_ (App-13). Thus there is such. thing as "a dead soul" as well as. "living soul" (Genesis 2:7); go also in Leviticus 21:1; Leviticus 22:4.Numbers 5:2;...

Miscellaneous precepts in reference to the various circumstances of every-day life....

YE SHALL NOT MAKE ANY CUTTINGS, &C.— The Egyptians, and many other idolaters, did this when they mourned for their friends; defiling their bodies with slashes and cuttings, as some say, to express the extremity of grief; as others, to pacify the infernal spirits, and propitiate them for the dead. See Jeremiah 16:7. As for the _marks,_ spoken of in the latter part of the verse, it was usual for the Zabii and others to burn marks in their bodies, that they might thus signify to what particular deities they were devoted. The greatest part of the Arabian women had their cheeks and arms marked with these stigmata; and Lucian says, that all the Assyrians bore these printed characters, some on their wrists, others on their necks: so Herodotus tells us, that he, who devoted himself to Hercules, received Στιγματα ιερα, _sacred stigmata;_ giving up himself to that god. These marks, says