Leviticus 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._ They shall not make baldness ... nor ... cuttings in their flesh. The superstitious marks of sorrow, as well as the violent excesses in which the pagan indulged at the death of their friends, were forbidden by a general law to the Hebrew people (Leviticus 19:28). The Moabites and other ancient idolaters cut themselves, as is also done by the modern Hindus, and even by Armenian Christians, and those pilgrims who go to Jerusalem (Joseph Wolff). 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 fai

Verse Leviticus 21:5. _THEY SHALL NOT MAKE BALDNESS_] _See the note on "_Leviticus 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?...

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 1 Corinthians 15:54, and it would therefore have been unsuitable that they should have the same freedom as other people to become mourners....

PART III. SECTION IV. THE UNCLEANNESS AND DISQUALIFICATION OF PRIESTS. EXPOSITION The two remaining chapters of this division of the book (Leviticus 21:1, Leviticus 22:1) deal with the ease of defilements attaching to the priesthood, over and above those which affect other men, whether ceremonial (Leviticus 21:1, Leviticus 21:10-3; Leviticus 22:

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 Leviticus 19:27; NEITHER SHALL THEY SHAVE OFF THE CORNER OF THEIR BEARD: the five corners of it;...

4. LAWS FOR THE PRIESTS CHAPTER 21 _ 1. Laws concerning the person of the priests (Leviticus 21:1)_ 2. Laws concerning their family (Leviticus 21:7) 3. Laws concerning the high priest (Leviticus 21:10) 4. Concerning blemishes (Leviticus 21:16) We come now to the special laws and precepts for the priestly class among the people. The preceding laws concerned the nation as such. The requirements of the priests are the highest in the entire book of Leviticus. Responsibility is always according to relationship. The priests, as we have seen before, typify the church. The grace

RESTRICTIONS FOR THE PRIESTS. To approach a corpse was to suffer defilement (_cf._ Numbers 5:2 * Numbers 19*, Tob_2:8 ff., Sir_34:25); this is, therefore, forbidden to the priest, except in the case of the nearest relations; Ezekiel (Ezekiel 44:26) prescribes a period of seven days-' cleansing even in this latter case. The mourning is looked upon as something needed by the dead or due to their memory; a married sister would ordinarily be mourned by her husband this is probably the meaning of the original text of Leviticus 21:4; if his sister were a widow, the priest might act in place of her husband. Similar restrictions are common elsewhere for priests, as also are the prohibitions of the outward signs of mourning. A

SHAVE. Forbidden to the Israelites; but in Egypt. disgrace not to shave. See Genesis 41:14. 1Sa 10:4, 1 Samuel 10:5. THE CORNER OF THEIR BEARD. their whiskers....

See on Leviticus 19:27-28....

THEY SHALL NOT MAKE BALDNESS UPON THEIR HEAD, &C.— See the notes on ch. Leviticus 19:27. What was forbidden to the people in general, is here forbidden to the priests. It is justly required, of the ministers of religion, that they be not only more holy themselves, but patterns of holiness to others. Parkhurst observes, that "the Jewish priests are here particularly forbidden to _make baldness upon their head,_ or _to shave off the corner of their beard,_ because the Egyptian priests did so." Thus Herodotus relates of the Egyptians, _Their priests shave their whole body every third day._ So the Babylonian priests are described, in Bar 6:31 as sitting in their temples, _their heads and beards shaven._ And thus also the priests, among the ancient Indians of Virginia, shaved their heads close, the crown and top of the forehead