Lev. 21:5

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not make baldness.This custom is also called rounding the corners of the head, (Le 19:27,) and seems to have been performed in honour of some idol.

Lev 10:6; Lev 19:27; Lev 19:28; Deut 14:1; Isa 15:2; Isa 22:12; Jer 16:6; Jer 48:37; Ezek 44:20

Amos 8:10; Mic 1:16

the corner.The Hebrew {peath zakon}, may denote the whiskers; as the Syriac {phatho} signifies. These are by the Arabs, according to Niebuhr, still cut entirely off, or worn quite short; and hence they are called by Jeremiah, [qtswtsy p'h,] those with cropped whiskers.

Perhaps some superstition, of which we are ignorant, was connected with this; but whether or not, it was the object of Moses to keep the Israelites distinct from other nations.