Leviticus 19:27
in Leviticus 19You must not cut off the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
KJV
Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
⋯
This verse in Leviticus 19
Commentary
7 notes on this verseYe shall not round the corners your heads - This and the following verse evidently refer to customs which must have existed among the Egyptians when the Israelites sojourned in Egypt; and what they were it is now difficult, even with any probability, to conjecture. Herodotus observes that the Arabs shave or cut their hair round, in honor of Bacchus, who, they say, had his hair cut in this way, lib. iii., cap.
This site's exposition
You must not eat anything with blood still in it
on Leviticus 19:26-28
One Hebrew word names the edge of the field in verse 9 and the side of the head in verse 27. So a farmer leaves both edges alone.
This site's exposition
the edges of your beard
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown trace the fashion to Egypt, where hair was cropped to leave a circle on the crown and beards were dressed square. Adam Clarke judges the exact custom hard to recover. He cites Herodotus on Arabs who cut their hair round in honor of Bacchus.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Eating upon the blood, as the Gentiles did, who gathered the blood of their sacrifices into a vessel for their demons (as they fancied) to drink, and then sat about it, eating the flesh themselves, signifying their communion with devils by their feasting with them.
Ye shall not round the corners of your heads,....
Most of these precepts are binding on us, for they are expositions of most of the ten commandments. Here is the preface to the ten commandments, "I am the Lord," repeated fifteen times.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, &c.--It seems probable that this fashion had been learned by the Israelites in Egypt, for the ancient Egyptians had their dark locks cropped short or shaved with great nicety, so that what remained on the crown appeared in the form of a circle surrounding the head, while the beard was dressed into a square form.
The words behind it
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תַקִּ֔פוּ | takifu | you will round off | H5362 → | |
| פְּאַ֖ת | peat | [the] side of | H6285 → | 86 times |
| רֹאשְׁכֶ֑ם | roshkhem | head your | H7218 → | 599 times |
| וְלֹ֣א | velo' | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תַשְׁחִ֔ית | tashchit | you will trim | H7843 → | |
| אֵ֖ת | ʾet | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| פְּאַ֥ת | peat | [the] side of | H6285 → | 86 times |
| זְקָנֶֽךָ׃ | zekanecha | beard your | H2206 → | 19 times |
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
תַקִּ֔פוּyou will round off
takifuH5362 →
פְּאַ֖ת[the] side of
peatH6285 →86 times
רֹאשְׁכֶ֑םhead your
roshkhemH7218 →599 times
וְלֹ֣אand not
velo'H3808 →5168 times
תַשְׁחִ֔יתyou will trim
tashchitH7843 →
אֵ֖ת<obj.>
ʾetH853 →10935 times
פְּאַ֥ת[the] side of
peatH6285 →86 times
זְקָנֶֽךָ׃beard your
zekanechaH2206 →19 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
Leviticus 21:5Priests must not make bald spots on their heads, shave off the edges of their beards, or make cuts in their bodies.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 14:1
You are sons of the LORD your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead,
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ezekiel 44:20
They must not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but must carefully trim their hair.
- Deuteronomy 14:1
Through
Deuteronomy 14:1You are sons of the LORD your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead,
it leads to
- Leviticus 21:5
Priests must not make bald spots on their heads, shave off the edges of their beards, or make cuts in their bodies.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Romans 9:8
So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.
- Galatians 3:26
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
- Romans 9:26
and, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
- Romans 8:16
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
- Leviticus 21:5
Through
Jeremiah 48:37For every head is shaved and every beard is clipped; on every hand is a gash, and around every waist is sackcloth.
it leads to
- Isaiah 15:2–3
Dibon 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.
- Isaiah 15:2–3
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies24
- Gleaning and the corner of the field
- Overcome Evil with Good
- Be Holy, Because I Am Holy
- Hospitality in Israel and the Early Church
- The Words Philoxenia and Ger
- How Scripture Shapes Christian Ethics
Show the next 6 titles
About Leviticus
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.