John Gill Commentary Leviticus 21:5

"They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh." — Leviticus 21:5 (ASV)

They shall not make baldness upon their head For the dead, as Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Ben Gersom; not shave their heads, or round the corners of them, or make baldness between their eyes on that account; as those things were forbid the Israelites, so the priests also; this and what follow being superstitious customs used among the Heathens in their mournings for the dead, particularly by the Chaldeans, as Aben Ezra observes; and so by the Grecians; when Hephestion, one of Alexander's captains, died, he shaved his soldiers and himself, imitating Achilles in Homer ^F20 ; so the Egyptians, mourning for the loss of Osiris, annually shaved their heads ^F21 ; and the priests of Isis, mourning for her lost son, are called by Minutius Felix ^F23 her bald priests; see (Leviticus 19:27Leviticus 19:28) (Deuteronomy 14:1) ;

neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard : the five corners of it; (See Gill on Leviticus 19:27). This the Israelites in common might not do, and particularly their priests; though the Egyptian priests shaved both their heads and beards, as Herodotus ^F24 relates: and so they are represented in the Table of Isis ^F25 :

nor make any cuttings in their flesh ; either with their nails, tearing their cheeks and breasts, or with an instrument cutting their flesh in any part of their bodies, as was the custom of Heathen nations; such were made by the Egyptians in their mournings ^F26 ; (See Gill on Leviticus 19:28).

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FOOTNOTES:

• F20: Aelian. Var. Hist. l. 7. c. 8.
• F21: Julius Firmicus de Error. Proph. p. 2.
• F23: In Octavio, p. 22. Vid. Lactant. de fals. Relig. l. 1. c. 21.
• F24: Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 36.
• F25: Vid. Pignorii Mens. Isiac. liter. S.
• F26: Julius Firmicus, ut supra. (^F21)