What Does Leviticus 21:5 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew pairs “cut” with “a cutting” and “make bald” with “baldness,” showing deliberate bodily marks that the nearby text connects to mourning for the dead.
THE MEANING
This verse sets a boundary around how grief is marked on the body. It names baldness, shaving the beard’s edge, and cutting as related visible acts. Your body is not proof or payment for your grief; loss does not erase the life you carry.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that grief must be proven by injuring or marking the body.
THE ROOT
שָׂרָטֶת
saretet
GROWS FROM
שרט
To scratch, cut, or incise.
“cuttings” in this verse is saretet. The verse pairs a verb from this root with its related noun: literally, “cut a cutting.” The repeated root makes the act and the mark one deliberate movement, rather than an incidental change to the body.
ALSO GROWS
yisretu: They cut or incise.
יִשְׂרְטוּ
This is the verb in the verse; it shows the action that produces the bodily mark.
saretet: An incision or cutting.
שָׂרָטֶת
This is the mark named as the object of the verb, repeating the same root.
קָרְחָה
qorḥah
GROWS FROM
קרח
To become or make bald; to leave bare.
The verse likewise uses the root for both the act and its result: “make baldness.” English can make this sound like a grooming detail, while the Hebrew stresses a deliberate bare mark on the head.
ALSO GROWS
yiqreḥu: They make bald or leave bare.
יִקְרְחוּ
This is the verb that names the deliberate act.
qere’aḥ: A bald person or one left bald.
קֵרֵחַ
This related form names the resulting bare condition.
THE PATTERN
The body is treated as a visible sign of belonging, not a surface for grief or private ownership to claim.
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?THE THREAD
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.Both verses use the root שרט (s-r-ṭ) for cutting, pairing the act with the cut it leaves. Leviticus 19:28 names the connection to the dead directly, opening the bodily marks in this verse as part of a pattern of mourning.
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