not round the corners of your heads: i.e. to cut round, so as to have a tuft of hair, like the Canaanitish priests. Compare Jeremiah 9:26 ; Jeremiah 25:23 ; Jeremiah 49:32 . corners of thy beard = whiskers, as Egyptians did. Compare Genesis 41:14 . read more
cuttings. A practice in Canaanitish heathen worship. Compare Leviticus 21:5 . Deu 14:1 . 1 Kings 18:28 . Jeremiah 48:37 . the dead = a dead soul. Hebrew. nephesh ( App-13 ). Thus there is such a thing as "a dead soul" as well as a "living soul" (Genesis 2:7 ); go also in Leviticus 21:1 ; Leviticus 22:4 .Numbers 5:2 ; Numbers 6:11 . Nephesh is incorrectly rendered "body" in Leviticus 21:11 .Numbers 6:6 ; Numbers 19:11 , Numbers 19:13 ; and "dead body" in Numbers 9:6 , Numbers 9:7 , Numbers... read more
Leviticus 19:27. Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, &c.— i.e. "Ye shall not cut off the hair from the corners, namely, from the temples and forepart of the head, nor from the extremities of your beards, towards the ear." Some think that this was in opposition to the superstitious tonsure of the wandering Arabs; who lived in tents, and were accustomed to cut the extremities of their hair round, in order to be like their god Bacchus, who, in their mythology, was the same with the... read more
Leviticus 19:28. Ye shall not make any cuttings, &c.— The Egyptians, and many other idolaters, did this when they mourned for their friends; defiling their bodies with slashes and cuttings, as some say, to express the extremity of grief; as others, to pacify the infernal spirits, and propitiate them for the dead. See Jeremiah 16:7. As for the marks, spoken of in the latter part of the verse, it was usual for the Zabii and others to burn marks in their bodies, that they might thus signify to... read more
27. 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. This kind of coiffure had a highly idolatrous meaning and it was adopted, with some slight variations, by almost all idolaters in ancient... read more
28. Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead—The practice of making deep gashes on the face and arms and legs, in time of bereavement, was universal among the heathen, and it was deemed a becoming mark of respect for the dead, as well as a sort of propitiatory offering to the deities who presided over death and the grave. The Jews learned this custom in Egypt, and though weaned from it, relapsed in a later and degenerate age into this old superstition (Isaiah 15:2; Jeremiah... read more
3. Holiness of behavior toward God and man ch. 19Moses grouped the commandments in this section together by a loose association of ideas rather than by a strictly logical arrangement. They all spring from the central thought in Leviticus 19:2: "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy." This sentence is the motto of Leviticus (cf. Leviticus 11:44-45; Leviticus 20:26; Matthew 5:48; 1 Peter 1:16)."Every biblical statement about God carries with it an implied demand upon men to imitate... read more
The opening words of this section indicate a change of subject. God called on His people to honor the order of nature by not mixing things that God had separated in creation (Leviticus 19:19)."Most of the ancient Near Easterners believed that all things that came into being were born into being. This was a major tenet of their belief system. They believed that not only animals were born, but also plants. (This is the reason that they ’sowed their field with two kind of seed,’ i.e., male and... read more
Statutes and judgments 19:19-37"This section is introduced with the admonition ’You shall keep my statutes’ (Leviticus 19:19 a) and concludes with a similar admonition, ’You shall keep all my statutes and all my judgments’ (Leviticus 19:37 a), and the statement ’I am the LORD’ (Leviticus 19:37 b). Like the preceding section of laws, it consists of a list of twenty-one (3x7) laws. These laws also are broken up into smaller units by a sevenfold repetition of the phrase ’I am the LORD (your God)’... read more
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Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Leviticus 19:1-37
Miscellaneous matters (19:1-37)Probably the miscellaneous laws collected here were decisions or warnings given by Moses in cases where there was some doubt about what was right or wrong. Often all that was needed was a reminder of existing laws; for example, those concerning respect for parents, Sabbath-keeping, worship of idols and eating of sacrificial food (19:1-8).When harvesting, farmers were always to leave something for the poor (9-10). Employers had to pay wages promptly, and judges had... read more