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Leviticus 19 forbids Israelites to round off the hair at the sides of the head. Jeremiah refers to the same custom, listing desert nations who cut their hair short at the temples as people set apart from Israel.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Leviticus 19:27
Hebrew Bible
26 “‘You must not eat anything with the blood still in it. You must not practice either divination or soothsaying. 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.
Jeremiah 9:26
Hebrew Bible
25 The Lord says, “Watch out! The time is soon coming when I will punish all those who are circumcised only in the flesh. 26 That is, I will punish the Egyptians, the Judeans, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples. I will do so because none of the people of those nations are really circumcised in the Lord’s sight. Moreover, none of the people of Israel are circumcised when it comes to their hearts.”
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Notes and References
... The length of person's hair has often signaled larger issues, and we catch hints of this in the Bible as well. The Old Testament prohibition of 'rounding off the hair on your temples' (Leviticus 19:27) was designed to set Israel apart from the practices of surrounding pagan nations (Jeremiah 9:26; 25:23). Ezekiel's prescription for priests in the new era is that they will neither 'shave their heads or let their locks grow long; they shall only trim the hair of their heads' (Ezekiel 44:20). By the time we reach the New Testament, Paul considers long hair to be the norm for women but degrading for men (1 Corinthians 11:14-15). Excessive attention to hair, such as fancy braiding of it, can signal a worldly minded preoccupation with externalities (1 Timothy 2:9; 1 Peter 3:3). ...
* 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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