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.
Parallel translations
- WEB “‘They shall not shave their heads or shave off the corners of their beards or make any cuttings in their flesh.
- BSB Priests must not make bald spots on their heads, shave off the edges of their beards, or make cuts in their bodies.
- NKJV ‘They shall not make any bald place on their heads, nor shall they shave the edges of their beards nor make any cuttings in their flesh.
- NASB They shall not shave any area on their heads bald, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts in their flesh.
- NLT “The priests must not shave their heads or trim their beards or cut their bodies.
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
Priests must not adopt pagan mourning rites of shaving the head, trimming the beard, or cutting the body. They were to grieve as those set apart for God.
Overview
These were the practices of the surrounding nations in mourning the dead (cf. 19:27-28), and priests above all were to reject them. Their conduct in sorrow was to testify to a different hope rooted in the living God. As ministers of the Lord, their lives, even their grief, were to be visibly holy and distinct from pagan despair.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- 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.
- Ezek 44:20Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll their heads.
- Lev 19:27–28Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
- Lev 10:6And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people: but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the LORD hath kindled.
- Mic 1:16Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
- Isa 15:2He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off.
- Amos 8:10And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
- Jer 48:37For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.
- Isa 22:12And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
- 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:
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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 21:5 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.