Imamat 13:40

Baldness on the Head

13:40 “When a man’s head is bare so that he is balding in back, ¹  he is clean.

Mikha 1:16

1:16 Shave your heads bald as you mourn for the children you love; ² 

shave your foreheads as bald ³  as an eagle, ⁴ 

for they are taken from you into exile.

[13:40]  ¹ tn Heb “And a man, when his head is rubbed bare, he is bald-headed.” The translation offered here, referring to the back of the head (i.e., the area from the top of the head sloping backwards), is based on the contrast between this condition and that of the following verse. See also B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 82.

[1:16]  ² tn Heb “over the sons of your delight.”

[1:16]  ³ tn Heb “make wide your baldness.”

[1:16]  ⁴ tn Or “a vulture” (cf. NIV, TEV); CEV “a buzzard.” The Hebrew term נֶשֶׁר (nesher) refers to the griffon vulture or eagle.