What Does Leviticus 21:5 Mean?
They do not shave bare a place upon their head, nor shave the corner of their beard, nor cut any gash into their flesh.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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 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.
“gash” 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.
“shave bare a place” in this verse is qorḥah. 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.
You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead, nor cut any inscribed mark upon you. I am the LORD.You are the children of the LORD your God. You shall not gash yourselves, nor shave a bare place between your eyes for the dead.Or have you not seen that your body is a temple of the Set-Apart Breath within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?THE THREAD
You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead, nor cut any inscribed mark 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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