Sigh, but not aloud. Make no mourning for the dead. Bind your headdress on you, and put your sandals on your feet. Don’t cover your lips, and don’t eat mourner’s bread.”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 17. Silence, for such manifold calamities, if thou canst screen thyself from the enemy, who will otherwise take offence, as he has brought them on. Bible.—Dead. Priests were allowed to mourn only for father or mother, and their unmarried brothers and sisters. Leviticus 21:1. Ezechiel (44:25) adds, Son and daughter. Many think the wife must also be understood, as she is nearer than a brother. The reasons for these prohibitions did not then subsist, as no sacrifice could be offered in Chaldea; and therefore God here specifies what the prophet was not to do, ( Calmet.) though lawful on other occasions. Sanct.—Tire. Lit. “crown,” bandage, ( Calmet.) or parchment, on which parts of the law were written. Septuagint “Let (Rom. ed. adds, not) the hair of thy head be curled (or ruffed; συμπεπλεγμενον) upon thee.” Bible.—It was usually cut in mourning. Saint Jerome—Feet. They were bare, at funerals, and in times of sorrow. 2 Kennicott. 15:30.—Face, like David. Hebrew “the upper lip,” which mourners and lepers covered. Leviticus 13:45. Calmet.—Mourners. Feasts were prepared by the relations, (Jos. Bel. ii. 1.) and friends sent some food, but no delicacies, to those who mourned. Leviticus 5:9.