Ezekiel 7:18

7:18 They will wear sackcloth, terror will cover them; shame will be on all their faces, and all of their heads will be shaved bald. ¹ 

Leviticus 21:5

21:5 Priests ²  must not have a bald spot shaved on their head, they must not shave the corner of their beard, and they must not cut slashes in their body. ³ 

Deuteronomy 14:1

The Holy and the Profane

14:1 You are children ⁴  of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald ⁵  for the sake of the dead.

Isaiah 15:2

15:2 They went up to the temple, ⁶ 

the people of Dibon went up to the high places to lament. ⁷ 

Because of what happened to Nebo and Medeba, ⁸  Moab wails.

Every head is shaved bare,

every beard is trimmed off. ⁹ 

Isaiah 22:12

22:12 At that time the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, called for weeping and mourning,

for shaved heads and sackcloth. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 16:6

16:6 Rich and poor alike will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned. People will not cut their bodies or shave off their hair to show their grief for them. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 47:5

47:5 The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning.

The people of Ashkelon will be struck dumb.

How long will you gash yourselves to show your sorrow, ¹² 

you who remain of Philistia’s power? ¹³ 

Jeremiah 48:37

48:37 For all of them will shave their heads in mourning.

They will all cut off their beards to show their sorrow.

They will all make gashes in their hands.

They will all put on sackcloth. ¹⁴ 

Amos 8:10

8:10 I will turn your festivals into funerals, ¹⁵ 

and all your songs into funeral dirges.

I will make everyone wear funeral clothes ¹⁶ 

and cause every head to be shaved bald. ¹⁷ 

I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; ¹⁸ 

when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. ¹⁹ 

Micah 1:16

1:16 Shave your heads bald as you mourn for the children you love; ²⁰ 

shave your foreheads as bald ²¹  as an eagle, ²² 

for they are taken from you into exile.

[7:18]  ¹ tn Heb “baldness will be on their heads.”

[21:5]  ² tn Heb “they”; the referent (priests, see the beginning of v. 1) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:5]  ³ tn Heb “and in their body they shall not [cut] slash[es]” (cf. Lev 19:28). The context connects these sorts of mutilations with mourning rites (cf. Lev 19:27-28 above).

[14:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); TEV, NLT “people.”

[14:1]  ⁵ sn Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald. These were pagan practices associated with mourning the dead; they were not be imitated by God’s people (though they frequently were; cf. 1 Kgs 18:28; Jer 16:6; 41:5; 47:5; Hos 7:14 [LXX]; Mic 5:1). For other warnings against such practices see Lev 21:5; Jer 16:5.

[15:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “house.”

[15:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “even Dibon [to] the high places to weep.” The verb “went up” does double duty in the parallel structure.

[15:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “over [or “for”] Nebo and over [or “for”] Medeba.”

[15:2]  ⁹ sn Shaving the head and beard were outward signs of mourning and grief.

[22:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for baldness and the wearing of sackcloth.” See the note at 15:2.

[16:6]  ¹¹ sn These were apparently pagan customs associated with mourning (Isa 15:2; Jer 47:5) which were forbidden in Israel (Lev 19:8; 21:5) but apparently practiced anyway (Jer 41:5).

[47:5]  ¹² sn Shaving one’s head and gashing one’s body were customs to show mourning or sadness for the dead (cf. Deut 14:1; Mic 1:16; Ezek 27:31; Jer 16:6; 48:37).

[47:5]  ¹³ tn Or “you who are left alive on the Philistine plain.” Or “you who remain of the Anakim.” The translation follows the suggestion of several of the modern commentaries that the word עֵמֶק (’emeq) means “strength” or “power” here (see J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 698; J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 310; and see also HALOT 803 s.v. II עֵמֶק). It is a rare homonym of the word that normally means “valley” that seems to be an inappropriate designation of the Philistine plain. Many of the modern English versions and commentaries follow the Greek version which reads here “remnant of the Anakim” (עֲנָקִים [’anaqim] instead of עִמְקָם [’imqam], a confusion of basically one letter). This emendation is followed by both BDB 771 s.v. עֵמֶק and KBL 716 s.v. עֵמֶק. The Anakim were generally associated with the southern region around Hebron but an enclave of them was known to have settled in Gaza, Gath, and Ekron, three of the Philistine cities (cf. Josh 11:22). However, the fact that this judgment is directed against the Philistines not the Anakim and that this homonym apparently appears also in Jer 49:4 makes the reading of “power” more likely here.

[48:37]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “upon every loin [there is] sackcloth.” The word “all” is restored here before “loin” with a number of Hebrew mss and a number of versions. The words “in mourning” and “to show their sorrow” are not in the text. They have been supplied in the translation to give the average reader some idea of the significance of these acts.

[8:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “mourning.”

[8:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I will place sackcloth on all waists.”

[8:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and make every head bald.” This could be understood in a variety of ways, while the ritual act of mourning typically involved shaving the head (although occasionally the hair could be torn out as a sign of mourning).

[8:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.”

[8:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and its end will be like a bitter day.” The Hebrew preposition כְּ (kaf) sometimes carries the force of “in every respect,” indicating identity rather than mere comparison.

[1:16]  ²⁰ tn Heb “over the sons of your delight.”

[1:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “make wide your baldness.”

[1:16]  ²² tn Or “a vulture” (cf. NIV, TEV); CEV “a buzzard.” The Hebrew term נֶשֶׁר (nesher) refers to the griffon vulture or eagle.