Imamat 19:27-31

19:27 You must not round off the corners of the hair on your head or ruin the corners of your beard. ¹  19:28 You must not slash your body for a dead person ²  or incise a tattoo on yourself. ³  I am the Lord. 19:29 Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, ⁴  so that the land does not practice prostitution and become full of lewdness. ⁵ 

Purity, Honor, Respect, and Honesty

19:30 “‘You must keep my Sabbaths and fear my sanctuary. I am the Lord. 19:31 Do not turn to the spirits of the dead and do not seek familiar spirits ⁶  to become unclean by them. I am the Lord your God.

[19:27]  ¹ tc Heb “and you [singular] shall not ruin the corner of your [singular] beard.” Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Tg. Ps.-J. have the plural pronouns (i.e., “you” and “your” plural) rather than the singular of the MT.

[19:28]  ² tn Heb “And slash for the soul you shall not give.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 21:1, 5; 22:5). See J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 306, 320-21.

[19:28]  ³ tn Heb “and a writing of incision you shall not give in you.”

[19:29]  ⁴ tn Heb “to make her practice harlotry.” Some recent English versions regard this as religious or temple prostitution (cf. TEV, CEV).

[19:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the land become full of lewdness.” Regarding the term “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.

[19:31]  ⁶ sn The prohibition here concerns those who would seek special knowledge through the spirits of the dead, whether the dead in general or dead relatives in particular (i.e., familiar spirits; see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 321, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 134). Cf. Lev 20:6 below.