Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
Parallel translations
- WEB “‘You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you. I am Yahweh.
- BSB You must not make any cuts in your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.
- NKJV You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the Lord.
- NASB You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead, nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.
- NLT “Do not cut your bodies for the dead, and do not mark your skin with tattoos. I am the Lord.
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 must not cut their bodies for the dead or tattoo themselves, practices tied to pagan mourning and idolatry. Their bodies belonged to the living God.
Overview
Self-laceration and ritual marking were common in Canaanite grief and idol worship (cf. 1 Kings 18:28). By forbidding them, God distinguishes Israel's hope from pagan despair and superstition. The terse 'I am Yahweh' grounds the command in His authority; Christians, whose bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19-20), likewise belong to God and grieve with hope, not as those without it.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Deut 14:1Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
- 1 Kgs 18:28And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.
- Lev 21:5They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.
- Lev 21:1And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people:
- Jer 16:6Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
- Jer 48:37For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.
- Mark 5:5And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
- Rev 13:16–17And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
- Rev 20:4And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
- Rev 15:2And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
- Rev 16:2And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
- Rev 14:11And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
- Rev 14:9And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
- Rev 19:20And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
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 19:28 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.