Deuteronomy 21:12

Verse 12. Hair. In mourning, people did the reverse to what they were accustomed to do in the days of joy. The men let their hair grow, the women cut this ornament of their head, a thing which the prophets often threaten. Isaiah 15:2–3. Jeremiah 47:5. and so forth Calmet.—Nails. Some would translate the Hebrew “she shall make her nails grow,” as a mark of sorrow, perhaps usual among the pagans faciet ungues. But the Septuagint Philo, and so forth agree with the Vulg.; ( Menochius.) and the Hebrew may very well have the same sense. We must not judge of the idea which others have of beauty, by our own sentiments. Some women in America have long nails, and esteem them as marks of beauty and nobility; and in China, they let those of the left hand grow, and cut them in mourning. Hist. Sin. iii. 1. The people of Mauritania take a pride in having long nails. Strabo xvi. The Duke of Burgundy, not 300 years ago, was distinguished among the slain, before Nancy, in France, ( Bible.) by the length of his nails; ( Calmet.) and, in ancient times, people never cut them in voyages at sea, unless to express their grief in extreme danger. Huic fluctus vivo radicitus abstulit ungues. Propert. iii. Petron. Why, therefore, might not these captives follow the same custom, as all depends on fashion? Calmet.—The woman being deprived of her ornaments, the passion of the soldier might probably abate. S. Jerom (ep. 84,) applies this to worldly learning, which he endeavoured to make subservient to the truth, after he had cut away what was dead and pernicious in it. D.