Leviticus 21:10 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Leviticus 21:10
And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes;
great (in any sense) · definite article + adjective, masculine singular absolute
priest
וְהַכֹּהֵן֩ve.ha.ko.Hen
H3548
literally one officiating · conjunction + definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
brethren
מֵאֶחָ֜יוme.'e.Chav
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
head
רֹאשׁ֣וֹro.Sho
H7218
the head (as most easily shaken) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
anointing
הַמִּשְׁחָה֙ha.mish.Chah
H4888
unction (the act) · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
oil
שֶׁ֤מֶןShe.men
H8081
grease · noun, common masculine singular construct
poured
יוּצַ֥קyu.Tzak
H3332
properly · verb, hophal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
consecrated
וּמִלֵּ֣אu.mi.Le'
H4390
to fill or (intransitively) be full of · conjunction + verb, piel sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
put
לִלְבֹּ֖שׁlil.Bosh
H3847
properly · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
garments
הַבְּגָדִ֑יםha.be.ga.Dim
H899
a covering · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
uncover
יִפְרָ֔עyif.Ra'
H6544
to loosen · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
head
רֹאשׁוֹ֙ro.Sho
H7218
the head (as most easily shaken) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
rend
יִפְרֹֽםyif.Rom
H6533
to tear · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
clothes
וּבְגָדָ֖יוu.ve.ga.Dav
H899
a covering · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Leviticus 10:6-7 And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and…
Leviticus 16:32 And the priest, whom he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate to minister in the priest’s office in his father’s stead, shall make the…
Matthew 26:65 Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard h…
Exodus 29:29-30 And the holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons’ after him, to be anointed therein, and to be consecrated in them.
Leviticus 8:12 And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.
Numbers 35:25 And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city o…
Genesis 37:34 And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
Exodus 28:2-4 And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 21:10-15
More was expected from a priest than from other people, but more from the high priest than from other priests, because upon his head the anointing oil was poured, and he was consecrated to put on the garments (Lev 21:10), both which were typical of the anointing and adorning of the Lord Jesus, with all the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, which he received without measure. It is called the crown of the anointing oil of his God (Lev 21:12); for the anointing of the Spirit is, to all that have it, a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty. The high priest being thus dignified,
I. He must not defile himself at all for the dead, no, nor for his nearest relations, his father or his mother, muc…
he that is the high priest among his brethren . . . shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes--The indulgence in the excepted cases of family bereavement, mentioned above [Lev 21:2-3], which was granted to the common priests, was denied to him; for his absence from the sanctuary for the removal of any contracted defilement could not have been dispensed with, neither could he have acted as intercessor for the people, unless ceremonially clean. Moreover, the high dignity of his office demanded a corresponding superiority in personal holiness, and stringent rules were prescribed for the purpose of upholding the suitable dignity of his station and family. The same rules are extended to th…
He that is the high priest - This is the first place where this title is introduced; the title is very emphatic, הכהן הגדול haccohen haggadol, that priest, the great one. For the meaning of כהן cohen, see the note on Gen 14:18. As the chief or high priest was a representative of our blessed Lord, therefore he was required to be especially holy; and he is represented as God's king among the people.
John Gill on Leviticus 21:10
The Church Fathers
Who received the investiture to dress, the garments. It is undoubtedly the garments that are described in detail when talking about the priestly garment (Cf Ex 28,4).
The priest superior to his brothers, the one who is great among his brothers, is the only high priest. On whose head the anointed oil was poured. The Scripture calls Christum (anointed) in oil.
He will not remove his miter from his head and will not tear his clothes and will not approach any dead soul. It is understood that he is forbidden to do what was previously said about mourning, that is, to discover the head, removing the miter and tearing the garments. Tearing the garments was a custom of the ancients when they mourned, as, for example, in the case of Job, when his sons announced to him that ruin had come upon them (Cf Jb 1,20). Discovering the head, taking off the miter, could be a gesture of mourning precisely because it was taking off an ornament. In relation to the phrase: And it will not come close to any dead soul, it is difficult to understand how the dead body is called dead soul. But it must be said that this is a frequent expression in the Scriptures that for us is very rare. In effect, the private body of the soul also receives the name of the one who governed it, because it must be returned in the resurrection. As, for example, the building that is called church, is still called church, although the church, which are men, has left there. But since the body does not receive the name of soul in a living man, we are surprised that it is called a soul when it lacks a soul. Now, if we understand that it is the dead soul, separated from the body, so that it would seem that death was the separation itself, that is, that the dead soul had been stripped from the body without losing its nature -for not even when it is said that we are dead to sin (Cf Rm 6,2), it is affirmed that nature has perished, but that we no longer sin, so that it is understood that the soul is dead, dead to the body, because it has ceased to use it, since it lives in its nature - how can one approach a dead soul, something that was forbidden to this priest, since whoever approaches, approaches a dead body, not a soul that has separated from the body? Or is it designated by the name of soul to one's own temporal life, which is certainly dead in a dead body, since that soul migrated that can not die? It is not a matter of the soul having been its own life, but because of the presence of the soul, which gave it subsistence, it has received its name. It is something similar to the distinction we made when speaking about blood, about which it was said: The soul of all flesh is blood (Lv 17,11). Because the blood is dead in a dead body, and it does not withdraw with the…
Dictionary and topics
Hair — (1.) The Egyptians let the hair of their head and beard grow only when they were in mourning, shaving it off at other times. “So particular were they on this point that to have neglected it was a…
High Places6813 Priest — The first distinct separation of Aaron to the office of the priesthood, which previously belonged to the first-born was that recorded (Exodus 28:1) ... We find from the very first the following…
Nazarite — (Heb. form Nazirite), the name of such Israelites as took on them the vow prescribed in Num. 6:2-21. The word denotes generally one who is separated from others and consecrated to God. Although there…
Purification — The process by which a person unclean, according to the Levitical law, and thereby cut off from the sanctuary and the festivals, was restored to the enjoyment of all these privileges. The great…
Dead, The · High priest in no case to mourn for — High priest in no case to mourn for
Head · Priests forbidden to shave — Priests forbidden to shave
High Priest, The · Forbidden to mourn for any — Forbidden to mourn for any
Mourning · .Head uncovered — .Head uncovered
Priest · .Marriage of — .Marriage of
Sanctification · UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
And he that is the high priest among his brethren,.... Either among his brethren, the priests, being in office above them; or among his brethren the Israelites, among and over whom he is high priest; or, as others render it, "the priest who is greater than his brethren" (d), in an higher office; the Jews say (e) the high priest was to be greater than his brethren, in beauty, in strength, in wisdom, and in riches; and if he had not money enough, all the priests were to give him of theirs, everyone according to his riches, until he became the richest among them all:
upon whose head the anointing oil was poured; as it was poured upon Aaron at his consecration, and those that succeeded him, Exo…
Leviticus 21:1-6, 12-Oct
1. And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people:
1. Et dixit Jehova ad Mosen, Alloquere sacerdotes filios Aharon, et dicito eis, Super animam non contaminabit se quisquam vestrum it, populis suis:
2. But for his kin, that is near unto him, that is, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother,
2. Sed super propinquo suo, propinquo sibi, nempe super matre sua, et super patre suo, et super filio suo, et super filia sua, et superfratre suo.,
3. And for his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto him, which hath had no…
The high priest was to maintain a spotless purity in a higher degree still. He, whose head had been anointed with oil, and who had been sanctified to put on the holy clothes (see Lev 8:7-12 and Lev 7:37), was not to go with his hair flying loose when a death had taken place, nor to rend his clothes (see Lev 10:6), nor to go in to any dead body (מת נפשׁת souls of a departed one, i.e., dead persons); he was not to defile himself (cf. Lev 21:2) on account of his father and mother (i.e., when they were dead), nor to go out of the sanctuary funeris nempe causa (Ros.), to give way to his grief or attend the funeral. We are not to understand by this, however, that the sanctuary was to be his consta…
The restrictions made on the common priests (21:1-4) applied even more stringently to the high priest because he had to represent all Israel, including the other priests. • The priest must never leave his hair uncombed or tear his clothing in mourning, so that he would always be fit to minister. Although the common priest was permitted to marry a widow, the high priest was allowed to marry only a virgin. This made certain that the future high priest and the common priests descended from that union would have an unquestioned lineage (21:15).
Rashi on Leviticus 21:10
לא יפרע [THE HAIR OF HIS HEAD] SHALL HE NOT DISARRANGE — i.e. he shall not let his hair grow wild on account of ritual mourning for the death of a near relative (Sifra). And what is called "letting the hair grow wild”? Leaving it uncut for more than 30 days (Sanhedrin 22b).
