Ulangan 14:1

The Holy and the Profane

14:1 You are children ¹  of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald ²  for the sake of the dead.

Ulangan 33:8

Blessing on Levi

33:8 Of Levi he said:

Your Thummim and Urim ³  belong to your godly one, ⁴ 

whose authority you challenged at Massah, ⁵ 

and with whom you argued at the waters of Meribah. ⁶ 

[14:1]  ¹ tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); TEV, NLT “people.”

[14:1]  ² sn Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald. These were pagan practices associated with mourning the dead; they were not be imitated by God’s people (though they frequently were; cf. 1 Kgs 18:28; Jer 16:6; 41:5; 47:5; Hos 7:14 [LXX]; Mic 5:1). For other warnings against such practices see Lev 21:5; Jer 16:5.

[33:8]  ³ sn Thummim and Urim. These terms, whose meaning is uncertain, refer to sacred stones carried in a pouch on the breastplate of the high priest and examined on occasion as a means of ascertaining God’s will or direction. See Exod 28:30; Lev 8:8; Num 27:21; 1 Sam 28:6. See also C. Van Dam, NIDOTTE 1:329-31.

[33:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “godly man.” The reference is probably to Moses as representative of the whole tribe of Levi.

[33:8]  ⁵ sn Massah means “testing” in Hebrew; the name is a wordplay on what took place there. Cf. Exod 17:7; Deut 6:16; 9:22; Ps 95:8-9.

[33:8]  ⁶ sn Meribah means “contention, argument” in Hebrew; this is another wordplay on the incident that took place there. Cf. Num 20:13, 24; Ps 106:32.