Leviticus 19:28

Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead,.... Either with their nails, tearing their cheeks and other parts, or with any instrument, knife, razor, c.

Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.

Any cuttings in your flesh, which the Gentiles commonly did both in the worship of their idols, and in their solemn mournings, . For the dead; Heb. for a soul, i.e. either, 1. Improperly, for a dead body; as that word is sometimes used, as 21:1 : or, 2. Properly, for the soul; Ye shall not cut your flesh or your bodies, for your souls, or upon pretence of doing your souls any good, either in way of mortification, or in the worship of God, as they did, , in like manner as others were willing to give to God the fruit of their body for the sin of their soul, .

Leviticus 19:28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I [am] the LORD.Ver. 28. Ye shall not make any cuttings.] Another heathenish custom, of such as mourned without hope. Plutarch tells of some barbarians that did tear their hair, rend their flesh, slit their ears and nose for the dead. Consol., ad Apol.

(28) Cuttings in your flesh for the dead.—It was not only the custom for mourners to let their hair grow long and wear it in a disorderly manner (see Leviticus 10:6), but the bereaved in the East to this day make cuts and incisions in their bodies in mourning for the dead. The Israelite, however, who is created in the image of God, and who is to be as holy as the Lord is holy, must not thus disfigure his body (see Leviticus 21:6; Deuteronomy 14:1, &c.); he must not sorrow as others which have no hope. For transgressing this law the offender received forty stripes save one. Nor print any marks upon you.—This, according to the ancient authorities, was effected by making punctures in the skin to impress certain figures or words, and then filling the cut places with stibium, ink, or some other colour. The practice of tattooing prevailed among all nations of antiquity, both among savages and civilised nations, The slave had impressed upon his body the initials of his master, the soldier those of his general, and the worshipper the image of his tutelar deity. To obviate this disfiguration of the body which bore the impress of God’s image, and yet to exhibit the emblem of his creed, the Mosaic Law enacted that the Hebrew should have phylacteries which he is to bind as “a sign” upon his hand, and as “a memorial” between his eyes “that the Lord’s law may be in his mouth” (Exodus 13:9; Exodus 13:16; Deuteronomy 6:8; Deuteronomy 11:18).

Verse 28. Any cuttings in your flesh for the dead] That the ancients were very violent in their grief, tearing the hair and face, beating the breast, c., is well known. Virgil represents the sister of Dido "tearing her face with her nails, and beating her breast with her fists." "Unguibus ora soror foedans, et pectora pugnis." AEn., l. iv., ver. 672. Nor print any marks upon you] It was a very ancient and a very general custom to carry marks on the body in honour of the object of their worship. All the castes of the Hindoos bear on their foreheads or elsewhere what are called the sectarian marks, which distinguish them, not only in a civil but also in a religious point of view, from each other. Most of the barbarous nations lately discovered have their faces, arms, breasts, c., curiously carved or tattooed, probably for superstitious purposes. Ancient writers abound with accounts of marks made on the face, arms, &c., in honour of different idols and to this the inspired penman alludes, Revelation 13:16-17; Revelation 14:9, Revelation 14:11; Revelation 15:2; Revelation 16:2; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:4, where false worshippers are represented as receiving in their hands and in their forehead the marks of the beast. These were called στιγματα stigmata among the Greeks, and to these St. Paul refers when he says, I bear about in my body the MARKS (stigmata) of the Lord Jesus; Galatians 6:17. I have seen several cases where persons have got the figure of the cross, the Virgin Mary, &c., made on their arms, breasts, &c., the skin being first punctured, and then a blue colouring matter rubbed in, which is never afterward effaced. All these were done for superstitious purposes, and to such things probably the prohibition in this verse refers. Calmet, on this verse, gives several examples. See also Mariner's Tonga Islands, vol. i. p. 311-313.

19–32. Miscellaneous precepts in reference to the various circumstances of every-day life.

28. Cuttings in your flesh — The excitable Oriental nations were accustomed to scratch the arms, hands, and face in their passionate outbursts of mourning for the dead. The practice was associated with idolatrous rites.