Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · Leviticus Chapitre 10

Moses prohibited Aaron and his remaining sons from showing any sign of mourning on account of this fatal calamity. “ Uncover not your heads, ” i.e., do not go about with your hair dishevelled, or flowing free and in disorder (Leviticus 13:45). ראשׁ פּרע does not signify merely uncovering the head by taking off the head-band (lxx, Vulg., Kimchi, etc.), or by shaving off the hair ( Ges. and others; see on the other hand Knobel on Leviticus 21:10), but is to be taken in a similar sense ראשׁו שׂער פּרע , the free growth of the hair, not cut short with scissors (Numbers 6:5; Ezekiel 44:20). It is derived from פּרע , to let loose from anything (Proverbs 1:25; Proverbs 4:5, etc.), to let a people loose, equivalent to giving them the reins (Exodus 32:25), and signifies solvere crines, capellos , to leave the hair in disorder, which certainly implies the laying aside of the head-dress in the case of the priest, though without consisting in this alone. On this sign of mourning among the Roman and other nations, see M. Geier de Ebraeorum luctu viii. 2. The Jews observe the same custom still, and in times of deep mourning neither wash themselves, nor cut their hair, nor pare their nails (see Buxtorf, Synog. jud. p. 706). They were also not to rend their clothes, i.e., not to make a rent in the clothes in front of the breast-a very natural expression of grief, by which the sorrow of the heart was to be laid bare, and one which was not only common among the Israelites (Genesis 37:29; Genesis 44:13; 2 Samuel 1:11; 2 Samuel 3:31; 2 Samuel 13:31), but was very widely spread among the other nations of antiquity (cf. Geier l.c. xxii. 9). פּרם , to rend, occurs, in addition to this passage, in Leviticus 13:45; Leviticus 21:10; in other places פרע , to tear in pieces, is used. Aaron and his sons were to abstain from these expressions of sorrow, “lest they should die and wrath come upon all the people.” Accordingly, we are not to seek the reason for this prohibition merely in the fact, that they would defile themselves by contact with the corpses, a reason which afterwards led to this prohibition being raised into a general law for the high priest (Leviticus 21:10-11). The reason was simply this, that any manifestation of grief on account of the death that had occurred, would have indicated dissatisfaction with the judgment of God; and Aaron and his sons would thereby not only have fallen into mortal sin themselves, but have brought down upon the congregation the wrath of God, which fell upon it through every act of sin committed by the high priest in his official position (Leviticus 4:3). “ Your brethren, (namely) the whole house of Israel, may bewail this burning ” (the burning of the wrath of Jehovah). Mourning was permitted to the nation, as an expression of sorrow on account of the calamity which had befallen the whole nation in the consecrated priests. For the nation generally did not stand in such close fellowship with Jehovah as the priests, who had been consecrated by anointing.

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The latter were not to go away from the door (the entrance or court of the tabernacle), sc., to take part in the burial of the dead, lest they should die, for the anointing oil of Jehovah was upon them. The anointing oil was the symbol of the Spirit of God, which is a Spirit of life, and therefore has nothing in common with death, but rather conquers death, and sin, which is the source of death (cf. Leviticus 21:12).

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