Ezekiel 44:20 - Exposition

The next rubric concerned the mode in which the priests should wear their hair. It should neither be shaved nor worn long, thus avoiding excess on either side (compare for the first, Le Ezekiel 21:5 ; and for the second, Le Ezekiel 10:6 ; Ezekiel 21:10 , Revised Version), but should merely be polled. The obligation to let the hair grow freely was imposed upon the Nazarite only during the period of his vow ( Numbers 6:5 ). The verb "to poll," or "cut" ( כָּסַם ), occurs nowhere else. Smend thinks what is hero denied to the priests collectively is in the priest-code denied solely to the high priest (Le Ezekiel 21:10 , Revised Version; compare, however, Leviticus 10:6 , Revised Version), and discovers in this a sign of the later origin of Leviticus. Ezekiel's raising the priesthood as a body to the rank of the high priest, of whom in connection with this temple is no trace, rather proves Ezekiel to have been later than Leviticus.