Leviticus 19:27

19:27 You must not round off the corners of the hair on your head or ruin the corners of your beard. 1 

Leviticus 19:1

Religious and Social Regulations

19:1 The Lord spoke to Moses:

Leviticus 19:3-4

19:3 Each of you must respect his mother and his father, 2  and you must keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. 19:4 Do not turn to idols, 3  and you must not make for yourselves gods of cast metal. I am the Lord your God.

Psalms 109:4-5

109:4 They repay my love with accusations, 4 

but I continue to pray. 5 

109:5 They repay me evil for good, 6 

and hate for love.

Isaiah 15:2

15:2 They went up to the temple, 7 

the people of Dibon went up to the high places to lament. 8 

Because of what happened to Nebo and Medeba, 9  Moab wails.

Every head is shaved bare,

every beard is trimmed off. 10 

1 tc Heb “and you [singular] shall not ruin the corner of your [singular] beard.” Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Tg. Ps.-J. have the plural pronouns (i.e., “you” and “your” plural) rather than the singular of the MT.

2 tn Heb “A man his mother and his father you [plural] shall fear.” The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain Targum mss reverse the order, “his father and his mother.” The term “fear” is subject to misunderstanding by the modern reader, so “respect” has been used in the translation. Cf. NAB, NRSV “revere”; NASB “reverence.”

3 sn Regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִים, ’elilim), see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 126; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 304; N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers (NBC), 89; and Judith M. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:411. It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’el, “god; God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless; weak; powerless; nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.”

4 tn Heb “in place of my love they oppose me.”

5 tn Heb “and I, prayer.”

6 tn Heb “and they set upon me evil in place of good.”

7 tn Heb “house.”

8 tn Heb “even Dibon [to] the high places to weep.” The verb “went up” does double duty in the parallel structure.

9 tn Heb “over [or “for”] Nebo and over [or “for”] Medeba.”

10 sn Shaving the head and beard were outward signs of mourning and grief.