Leviticus 21:5

5 “ ‘Priests must not shave their heads or shave off the edges of their beards or cut their bodies.

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Leviticus 21:5 in Other Translations

KJV

5 They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.

ESV

5 They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body.

NLT

5 “The priests must not shave their heads or trim their beards or cut their bodies.

MSG

5 "Priests must not shave their heads or trim their beards or gash their bodies.

CSB

5 "Priests may not make bald spots on their heads, shave the edge of their beards, or make gashes on their bodies.

Leviticus 21:5 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 21:5

They shall not make baldness upon their head
For the dead, as Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Ben Gersom; not shave their heads, or round the corners of them, or make baldness between their eyes on that account; as those things were forbid the Israelites, so the priests also; this and what follow being superstitious customs used among the Heathens in their mournings for the dead, particularly by the Chaldeans, as Aben Ezra observes; and so by the Grecians; when Hephestion, one of Alexander's captains, died, he shaved his soldiers and himself, imitating Achilles in Homer ^F20; so the Egyptians, mourning for the loss of Osiris, annually shaved their heads ^F21; and the priests of Isis, mourning for her lost son, are called by Minutius Felix ^F23 her bald priests; see ( Leviticus 19:27 Leviticus 19:28 ) ( Deuteronomy 14:1 ) ; neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard:
the five corners of it; (See Gill on Leviticus 19:27). This the Israelites in common might not do, and particularly their priests; though the Egyptian priests shaved both their heads and beards, as Herodotus ^F24 relates: and so they are represented in the Table of Isis ^F25: nor make any cuttings in their flesh;
either with their nails, tearing their cheeks and breasts, or with an instrument cutting their flesh in any part of their bodies, as was the custom of Heathen nations; such were made by the Egyptians in their mournings ^F26; (See Gill on Leviticus 19:28).

FOOTNOTES:

F20 Aelian. Var. Hist. l. 7. c. 8.
F21 Julius Firmicus de Error. Proph. p. 2.
F23 In Octavio, p. 22. Vid. Lactant. de fals. Relig. l. 1. c. 21.
F24 Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 36.
F25 Vid. Pignorii Mens. Isiac. liter. S.
F26 Julius Firmicus, ut supra. (^F21)

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Leviticus 21:5 In-Context

3 or an unmarried sister who is dependent on him since she has no husband—for her he may make himself unclean.

4 He must not make himself unclean for people related to him by marriage, and so defile himself.

5 “ ‘Priests must not shave their heads or shave off the edges of their beards or cut their bodies.

6 They must be holy to their God and must not profane the name of their God. Because they present the food offerings to the LORD, the food of their God, they are to be holy.

7 “ ‘They must not marry women defiled by prostitution or divorced from their husbands, because priests are holy to their God.