Deuteronomy 14:1
in Deuteronomy 14You are sons of the LORD your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Ye are the children of Jehovah your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
KJV
Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
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This verse in Deuteronomy 14
Commentary
8 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Make any baldness between your eyes - i. e. by shaving the forepart of the head and the eyebrows. The practices named in this verse were common among the pagan, and seem to be forbidden, not only because such wild excesses of grief (compare 1Ki 18:28) would be inconsistent in those who as children of a heavenly Father had prospects beyond this world, but also because these usages themselves arose out of idolatrous notions.
This site's exposition
Ye are the children of the Lord your God
on Deuteronomy 14:1-3
The ban on cutting the flesh and shaving the head for the dead is grounded in sonship, since the reason given first is that Israel belongs to God as children. Leviticus 21:5 laid that rule on the priests and Leviticus 19:28 on the people, and here the whole nation is addressed as sons before it is told to keep it. Peculiar people is the phrase of Exodus 19:5, and Titus 2:14 and 1 Peter 2:9 take it up for the church. 1 Kings 18:28 shows the prophets of Baal cutting themselves, and Jeremiah 16:6 and 41:5 show Israelites doing it anyway.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
): " You are the children of the Lord your God, formed by him into a people, owned by him as his people, nay, his family, a people near unto him, nearer than any other." Israel is my son, my first-born; not because he needed children, but because they were orphans, and needed a father.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
This forbids (as some think), not only their cutting themselves at their funerals, either to express their grief or with their own blood to appease the infernal deities, but their wounding and mangling themselves in the worship of their gods, as Baal's prophets did ( 1 Kings xviii.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Ye shall not cut yourselves - Which were the practices of idolaters, both in the worship of their idols, in their funerals, and upon occasion of public calamities. Is not this like a parent's charge to his little children, playing with knives, "Do not cut yourselves!" This is, the intention of those commands, which obliges us to deny ourselves.
Ye are the children of the Lord your God,.... Some of them were so by the special grace of adoption, and all of them by national adoption; which was the peculiar privilege of the people of Israel, and laid them under great obligation to honour and obey the Lord their God, who stood in the relation of a father to them, and they of children to him, Mal 1:
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
ye shall not cut yourselves . . . for the dead--It was a common practice of idolaters, both on ceremonious occasions of their worship (1Ki 18:28), and at funerals (compare Jer 16:6;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Ye are the children of the Lord - The very highest character that can be conferred on any created beings; ye shall not cut yourselves, i. e., their hair, for it was a custom among idolatrous nations to consecrate their hair to their deities, though they sometimes also made incisions in their flesh.
The words behind it
12 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בָּנִ֣ים | banim | [are] children | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| אַתֶּ֔ם | ʾatem | you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| לַֽיהוָ֖ה | layahweh | of Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֑ם | ʾeloheikhem | God your | H430 → | 2601 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תִתְגֹּֽדְד֗וּ | titgodedu | you will cut yourselves | H1413 → | |
| וְלֹֽא־ | velo'- | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תָשִׂ֧ימוּ | tasimu | you will make | H7760 → | 584 times |
| קָרְחָ֛ה | karechah | baldness | H7144 → | |
| בֵּ֥ין | bein | between | H996 → | 407 times |
| עֵינֵיכֶ֖ם | ʾeineikhem | eyes your | H5869 → | 887 times |
| לָמֵֽת׃ | lamet | to a dead [person] | H4191 → | 839 times |
בָּנִ֣ים[are] children
banimH1121 →4930 times
אַתֶּ֔םyou
ʾatemH859 →1094 times
לַֽיהוָ֖הof Yahweh
layahwehH3068 →6520 times
אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֑םGod your
ʾeloheikhemH430 →2601 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
תִתְגֹּֽדְד֗וּyou will cut yourselves
titgodeduH1413 →
וְלֹֽא־and not
velo'-H3808 →5168 times
תָשִׂ֧ימוּyou will make
tasimuH7760 →584 times
קָרְחָ֛הbaldness
karechahH7144 →
בֵּ֥יןbetween
beinH996 →407 times
עֵינֵיכֶ֖םeyes your
ʾeineikhemH5869 →887 times
לָמֵֽת׃to a dead [person]
lametH4191 →839 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Hosea 1:10Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And it will happen that in the very place where it was said to…
it leads to
- 2 Corinthians 6:18
And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Galatians 4:6–7
And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
- John 1:12
But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—
- Romans 9:25–28
As He says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘My People’ who are not My people, and I will call her ‘My Beloved’ who is not My beloved,”
- 1 Peter 2:9–10
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
- 2 Corinthians 6:18
Through
Galatians 3:26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
it leads to
- Ephesians 1:5
He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will,
- John 1:12–13
But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—
- Galatians 4:5–6
to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons.
- Ephesians 1:5
About Deuteronomy
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.