“The priests must not shave their heads or trim their beards or cut their bodies.
Parallel translations
- WEB “‘They shall not shave their heads or shave off the corners of their beards or make any cuttings in their flesh.
- KJV 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.
- 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.
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 14:1You are the children of Yahweh your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
- Ezek 44:20Neither shall they shave their heads, nor allow their locks to grow long; they shall only cut off the hair of their heads.
- Lev 19:27–28“‘You shall not cut the hair on the sides of your head or clip off the edge of your beard.
- Lev 10:6Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons, “Don’t let the hair of your heads go loose, and don’t tear your clothes; so that you don’t die, and so that he not be angry with all the congregation; but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which Yahweh has kindled.
- Mic 1:16Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture; for they have gone into captivity from you!
- Isa 15:2They have gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off.
- Amos 8:10I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.
- Jer 48:37For every head is bald, and every beard clipped. There are cuttings on all the hands, and sackcloth on the waist.
- Isa 22:12In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:
- Jer 16:6Both great and 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.