Leviticus 19:28

Christian Standard Bible ®

You are not to make gashes on your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves; I am the Lord.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks on you: I am the LORD.

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

Lexham English Bible
And you shall not make a slash in your body for a dead person, nor shall you make on yourselves a tattoo's mark; I am Yahweh.

New Century Version
You must not cut your body to show sadness for someone who died or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord .

New English Translation
You must not slash your body for a dead person or incise a tattoo on yourself. I am the Lord .

Amplified Bible
'You shall not make any cuts on your body [in mourning] for the dead, nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves; I am the LORD.

New American Standard Bible
'You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead, nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Ye shal not cut your flesh for the dead, nor make any print of a marke vpon you: I am the Lorde,

Legacy Standard Bible
And you shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am Yahweh.

Complete Jewish Bible
Don't cut gashes in your flesh when someone dies or tattoo yourselves; I am Adonai .

Darby Translation
And cuttings for a dead person shall ye not make in your flesh, nor put any tattoo writing upon you: I am Jehovah.

Easy-to-Read Version
You must not cut your body as a way to remember the dead. You must not make any tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord .

English Standard Version
You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord .

George Lamsa Translation
You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor inscribe any marks upon you; I am the LORD.

Good News Translation
or tattoo yourselves or cut gashes in your body to mourn for the dead. I am the Lord .

Literal Translation
And you shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead; and you shall not put on yourself any etched mark; I am Jehovah.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Ye shal rente out no markes in youre body (for eny that is deed) ner make lettres vpo you: for I am the LORDE.

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

Bible in Basic English
You may not make cuts in your flesh in respect for the dead, or have marks printed on your bodies: I am the Lord.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Ye shall not rent your fleshe for any soules sake, nor print any markes vpon you: I am the Lorde.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor imprint any marks upon you: I am the LORD.

King James Version (1611)
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any markes vpon you: I am the Lord.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And ye shall not make cuttings in your body for a dead body, and ye shall not inscribe on yourselves any marks. I am the Lord your God.

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

Berean Standard Bible
You must not make any cuts in your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and on deed men ye schulen not kitte youre fleischis, nether ye schulen make to you ony fyguris, ether markis in youre fleisch; Y am the Lord.

Young's Literal Translation
`And a cutting for the soul ye do not put in your flesh; and a writing, a cross-mark, ye do not put on you; I [am] Jehovah.

Update Bible Version
You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks on you: I am Yahweh.

Webster's Bible Translation
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I [am] the LORD.

World English Bible
You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks on you: I am Yahweh.

New King James Version
You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the LORD.

New Living Translation
"Do not cut your bodies for the dead, and do not mark your skin with tattoos. I am the Lord .

New Life Bible
Do not make any cuts on your body for the dead. Do not burn any pictures that will stay on your body. I am the Lord.

New Revised Standard
You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the Lord .

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Cuttings for a dead person, shall ye not make in your flesh. And punctures in your persons, shall ye not print, - I, am Yahweh.

Douay-Rheims Bible
You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh, for the dead: neither shall you make in yourselves any figures or marks. I am the Lord.

Revised Standard Version
You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the LORD.

THE MESSAGE
"Don't gash your bodies on behalf of the dead. "Don't tattoo yourselves. I am God .

New American Standard Bible (1995)
'You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.

Contextual Overview

¹⁹“You are to keep my statutes. Do not crossbreed two different kinds of your livestock, sow your fields with two kinds of seed, or put on a garment made of two kinds of material. ²⁰“If a man has sexual intercourse with a woman who is a slave designated for another man, but she has not been redeemed or given her freedom, there must be punishment. They are not to be put to death, because she had not been freed. ²¹However, he must bring a ram as his guilt offering to the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ²²The priest will make atonement on his behalf before the Lord with the ram of the guilt offering for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven for the sin he committed. ²³“When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, you are to consider the fruit forbidden. It will be forbidden to you for three years; it is not to be eaten. ²⁴In the fourth year all its fruit is to be consecrated as a praise offering to the Lord. ²⁵But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit. In this way its yield will increase for you; I am the Lord your God. ²⁶“You are not to eat anything with blood in it. You are not to practice divination or witchcraft. ²⁷You are not to cut off the hair at the sides of your head or mar the edge of your beard. ²⁸You are not to make gashes on your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves; I am the Lord.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

cuttings: Leviticus 21:5, Deuteronomy 14:1, 1 Kings 18:28, Jeremiah 16:6, Jeremiah 48:37, Mark 5:5

print: Revelation 13:16, Revelation 13:17, Revelation 14:9, Revelation 14:11, Revelation 15:2, Revelation 16:2, Revelation 19:20, Revelation 20:4

Reciprocal: Numbers 6:6 - he shall come Psalms 16:10 - my Isaiah 15:2 - all Jeremiah 41:5 - their beards Jeremiah 47:5 - how 1 Thessalonians 4:13 - ye sorrow

Cross-References

Genesis 19:10
But the angels reached out, brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.

Genesis 19:11
They struck the men who were at the entrance of the house, both young and old, with blindness so that they were unable to find the entrance.

Psalms 107:34
and fruitful land into salty wasteland,because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.

2 Peter 2:7
and if he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral

Jude 1:7
Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns committed sexual immorality and perversions, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

Revelation 9:2
He opened the shaft to the abyss, and smoke came up out of the shaft like smoke from a great furnace so that the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft.

Revelation 18:9
The kings of the earth who have committed sexual immorality and shared her sensual and excessive ways will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke from her burning.

Revelation 18:18
as they watched the smoke from her burning and kept crying out: “Who was like the great city?”

Revelation 19:3
A second time they said,

Revelation 21:8
But the cowards, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars—their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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. Jarchi says, it was the custom of the Amorites, when anyone died, to cut their flesh, as it was of the Scythians, as Herodotus d relates, even those of the royal family for a king they cut off a part of the ear, shaved the hair round about, cut the arms about, wounded the forehead and nose, and transfixed the left hand with arrows; and so the Carthaginians, who might receive it from the Phoenicians, being a colony of theirs, used to tear their hair and mouths in mourning, and beat their breasts e; and with the Romans the women used to tear their cheeks in such a manner that it was forbid by the law of the twelve tables, which some have thought was taken from hence: and all this was done to appease the infernal deities, and to give them satisfaction for the deceased, and to make them propitious to them, as Varro f affirms; and here it is said to be made "for the soul", for the soul of the departed, to the honour of it, and for its good, though the word is often used for a dead body: now, according to the Jewish canons g, whosoever made but one cutting for a dead person was guilty, and to be scourged; and he that made one for five dead men, or five cuttings for one dead man, was obliged to scourging for everyone of them:

nor print any marks upon you; Aben Ezra observes, there are some that say this is in connection with the preceding clause, for there were who marked their bodies with a known figure, by burning, for the dead; and he adds, and there are to this day such, who are marked in their youth in their faces, that they may be known; these prints or marks were made with ink or black lead, or, however, the incisions in the flesh were filled up therewith; but this was usually done as an idolatrous practice; so says Ben Gersom, this was the custom of the Gentiles in ancient times, to imprint upon themselves the mark of an idol, to show that they were his servants; and the law cautions from doing this, as he adds, to the exalted name (the name of God): in the Misnah it is said h, a man is not guilty unless he writes the name, as it is said,

Leviticus 19:28; which the Talmudists i and the commentators k interpret of the name of an idol, and not of God:

I [am] the Lord; who only is to be acknowledged as such, obeyed and served, and not any strange god, whose mark should be imprinted on them.

d Melpomene, sive, l. 4. c. 71. e Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 3. c. 7. f Apud Servium in Virgil. Aeneid. 3. g Misn. Maccot, c. 3. sect. 5. h Ibid. sect. 6. i T. Bab. Maccot, fol. 21. 1. k Jarchi, Maimon. Bartenora, & Ez Chayim in Misn. ut supra. (g)

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Certain pagan customs, several of them connected with magic, are here grouped together. The prohibition to eat anything with the blood may indeed refer to the eating of meat which had not been properly bled in slaughtering (Leviticus 7:26; Leviticus 17:10, etc.): but it is not improbable that there may be a special reference to some sort of magical or idolatrous rites. Compare Ezekiel 33:25.

Leviticus 19:26

Observe times - It is not clear whether the original word refers to the fancied distinction between lucky and unlucky days, to some mode of drawing omens from the clouds, or to the exercise of “the evil eye.”

Leviticus 19:27

Round the corners of your heads - This may allude to such a custom as that of the Arabs described by Herodotus. They used to show honor to their deity Orotal by cutting the hair away from the temples in a circular form. Compare the margin reference.

Mar the corners of thy beard - It has been conjectured that this also relates to a custom which existed among the Arabs, but we are not informed that it had any idolatrous or magical association. As the same, or very similar customs, are mentioned in Leviticus 21:5, and in Deuteronomy 14:1, as well as here, it would appear that they may have been signs of mourning.

Leviticus 19:28

Cuttings in your flesh for the dead - Compare the margin reference. Among the excitable races of the East this custom appears to have been very common.

Print any marks - Tattooing was probably practiced in ancient Egypt, as it is now by the lower classes of the modern Egyptians, and was connected with superstitious notions. Any voluntary disfigurement of the person was in itself an outrage upon God’s workmanship, and might well form the subject of a law.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

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.