“... 56. This and the following tricolon take the description of El's mourning to its ritual culmination. Self-mutilation is a classic expression of grief and guilt (both emotions are present at funerals!). El gouges his skin with a stone. Cf. Job 2.8. He also shaves. The prohibition against these actions in Lev. 19.27-28 and Deut. 14.1 presupposes that this was hitherto normal practice. An important symbolic aspect may be that to break the skin is to destroy the boundary between self and not-self, thus inviting the irruption of chaos. Boundaries must be maintained! See Job 7.5. Cutting of the hair 'killed' it, again reinforcing the sense of sharing in the experience of the dead. See refs. in de Moor (1971 a: 193). In the final colon, 'cheeks and chin' (Ug. IQm wdqn) is translated 'side-whiskers and beard' by some, e.g. de Moor (1971a: 190, 193). ...”