You must not cut off the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.
Parallel translations
- WEB “‘You shall not cut the hair on the sides of your head or clip off the edge of your beard.
- KJV Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
- NKJV You shall not shave around the sides of your head, nor shall you disfigure the edges of your beard.
- NASB You shall not round off the hairline of your heads, nor trim the edges of your beard.
- NLT “Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel was not to trim the hair and beard in the distinctive ways associated with pagan mourning or idolatrous rites. God's people were to be visibly set apart from the surrounding nations.
Overview
These grooming practices were likely tied to Canaanite mourning customs or cultic devotion to false gods. Rather than a timeless rule about hairstyles, the command marks Israel as holy and distinct in everyday appearance. The deeper principle endures: God's people are not to imitate the world's religious customs but to bear a holiness that sets them apart.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Lev 21:5Priests must not make bald spots on their heads, shave off the edges of their beards, or make cuts in their bodies.
- Deut 14:1You are sons of the LORD your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead,
- Ezek 44:20They must not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but must carefully trim their hair.
- Jer 48:37For every head is shaved and every beard is clipped; on every hand is a gash, and around every waist is sackcloth.
- Isa 15:2Dibon goes up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails over Nebo, as well as over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard is cut off.
- Jer 16:6“Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, nor will anyone cut himself or shave his head for them.
- Ezek 7:18They will put on sackcloth, and terror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 19:27 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.