SEV Biblia, Chapter 14:1
¶ Hijos sois del SEÑOR vuestro Dios: no os sajaréis, ni pondréis calva sobre vuestros ojos por muerto;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 14:1
Verse 1. Ye are the children of the Lord] The very highest character that can be conferred on any created beings; ye shall not cut yourselves, i. e., their hair, for it was a custom among idolatrous nations to consecrate their hair to their deities, though they sometimes also made incisions in their flesh.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 1. Ye are the children of the Lord your God , etc.] Some of them were so by the special grace of adoption, and all of them by national adoption; which was the peculiar privilege of the people of Israel, and laid them under great obligation to honour and obey the Lord their God, who stood in the relation of a father to them, and they of children to him, ( Malachi 1:6). The Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it “beloved children”; so the apostle calls the saints; the “dear children of God”, who therefore ought to be followers of him, ( Ephesians 5:1) and for a like reason this relation is observed here, namely, to quicken a regard to the exhortations of the Lord, his cautions, commands, laws, and ordinances, particularly to what follows: ye shall not cut yourselves ; for the dead, as appears from the next clause, as the Heathens did, who not only tore their garments, but their flesh in several parts of their bodies, in their mouths, cheeks, breasts, etc. f132 ; and used other extravagant signs of mourning, which the apostle cautions against, ( 1 Thessalonians 4:13) and were condemned by the Heathens themselves f133 . Though some think this refers to incisions the Heathens made in their flesh to the honour of their gods, cutting the names of them therein to whom they devoted themselves; or lashing their bodies at the worship of them, as the worshippers of Baal did when they called upon him, ( 1 Kings 18:28) and so the Jerusalem Targum, “make not marks, marks,” that is, here and there, in many places, or bruises black and blue by striping and beating themselves, for strange worship, or at it, in honour of their gods; but the former sense seems best to agree with what follows; (see Leviticus 19:28), nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead ; by shaving the forepart of their head or their eyebrows, or both, which used to be done in lamentations for the dead; (see Jeremiah 16:6,7) if this could be thought to have any respect to rites and ceremonies used in the worship of dead and lifeless idols, the customs of the Egyptians might be referred to, who are said to shave their heads and their eyebrows in their sacred rites to Isis f134 .
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-21 - Moses tells the people of Israel how God had given them thre distinguishing privileges, which were their honour, and figures of those spiritual blessings in heavenly things, with which God has in Christ blessed us. Here is election; "The Lord hath chosen thee." He did not choose them because they were by their own acts a peculia people to him above other nations, but he chose them that they might be so by his grace; and thus were believers chosen, Eph 1:4. Here i adoption; "Ye are the children of the Lord your God;" not because God needed children, but because they were orphans, and needed a father Every spiritual Israelite is indeed a child of God, a partaker of his nature and favour. Here is sanctification; "Thou art a holy people. God's people are required to be holy, and if they are holy, they ar indebted to the grace God which makes them so. Those whom God choose to be his children, he will form to be a holy people, and zealous of good works. They must be careful to avoid every thing which migh disgrace their profession, in the sight of those who watch for their halting. Our heavenly Father forbids nothing but for our welfare. D thyself no harm; do not ruin thy health, thy reputation, thy domesti comforts, thy peace of mind. Especially do not murder thy soul. Do no be the vile slave of thy appetites and passions. Do not render all around thee miserable, and thyself wretched; but aim at that which i most excellent and useful. The laws which regarded many sorts of fles as unclean, were to keep them from mingling with their idolatrou neighbours. It is plain in the gospel, that these laws are now don away. But let us ask our own hearts, Are we of the children of the Lor our God? Are we separate from the ungodly world, in being set apart to God's glory, the purchase of Christ's blood? Are we subjects of the work of the Holy Ghost? Lord, teach us from these precepts how pure an holy all thy people ought to live!
Original Hebrew
בנים 1121 אתם 859 ליהוה 3068 אלהיכם 430 לא 3808 תתגדדו 1413 ולא 3808 תשׂימו 7760 קרחה 7144 בין 996 עיניכם 5869 למת׃ 4191
