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Leviticus 19 forbids ritually cutting the body in mourning for the dead, stated directly. Deuteronomy 14 repeats the ban on cutting yourself for the dead but adds a reason, calling Israel God’s children and a people holy and chosen.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Leviticus 19:28
Hebrew Bible
27 You must not round off the corners of the hair on your head or ruin the corners of your beard. 28 You must not slash your body for a dead person or incise a tattoo on yourself. I am the Lord. 29 Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, so that the land does not practice prostitution and become full of lewdness.
Deuteronomy 14:1
Hebrew Bible
1 You are children of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald for the sake of the dead. 2 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. He has chosen you to be his people, prized above all others on the face of the earth. 3 You must not eat any forbidden thing.
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Notes and References
... In Leviticus 21:5, it is the priests who are forbidden to shave their heads and make gashes in their flesh on the occasion of the death of anyone other than a close relative precisely because priests are forbidden in Leviticus 21:4 to observe rites of mourning for anyone other than a close relative. Leviticus 19:26-28, on the other hand, enjoins all Israelites to refrain from shaving their heads and making gashes in their flesh as mourning rites. Deuteronomy 14:1-2 likewise forbids all Israelites to gash themselves or shave the front of their heads as rites of mourning. What is intriguing is that, when Jeremiah asserts in Jeremiah 16:5-6 that there will be an ad hoc suspension of the accepted mourning rites of gash and tonsure, he specifically employs the terminology of Deuteronomy 14:2 and reflects Deuteronomy but assumes that what Deuteronomy 14:1-2 forbids is, in fact, normal and proper behavior in the time of mourning except when the suspension of mourning itself is a form of God-given punishment. ...
Gruber, Mayer I.
"Jeremiah 3:1-4:2 between Deuteronomy 24 and Matthew 5: Jeremiah's Exercise in Ethical Criticism" in Cohen, Chaim; Hurowitz, Victor Avigdor; Hurvitz, Avi; Muffs, Yochanan; Schwartz, Baruch J.; Tigay, Jeffrey H. (ed.) Birkat Shalom: Studies in the Bible, Ancient Near Eastern Literature, and Postbiblical Judaism Presented to Shalom M. Paul
(p. 235) Eisenbrauns, 2008
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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