Verse 26
26. Polled his head Cut or clipped off the superabundant growth of the hair.
At every year’s end Literally, from the end of days to days; that is, from time to time.
Two hundred shekels after the king’s weight The king’s shekel is supposed to have been less than the common shekel, and Bochart makes the weight of two hundred shekels equal to three pounds and two ounces avoirdupois. Others think there is an error in the text caused by the former use of letters for numbers, and the transcriber’s mistaking one for another. Thus, ד =4, ר =200, ל =30; and one of these might easily have been mistaken for another. It is impossible positively to solve the difficulty, but in any case it is clear that the weight of Absalom’s hair was surprisingly great, and this was regarded as adding to his beauty. “The hair of men will grow as thick as that of women, and perhaps thicker; and if we may judge from the cues of the Chinese, which sometimes reach to the ground, it will grow as long; and such hair, if of proportionate bulk, must, one would think, weigh at least three or four pounds. Indeed, we have read the well known case of a lady whose hair reached the ground, and weighed upon her head (and therefore without including the weight of the parts nearest the scalp) upwards of four pounds.” Kitto.
Be the first to react on this!
