Leviticus 19:27 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, &c.— i.e. "Ye shall not cut off the hair from the corners, namely, from the temples and forepart of the head, nor from the extremities of your beards, towards the ear." Some think that this was in opposition to the superstitious tonsure of the wandering Arabs; who lived in tents, and were accustomed to cut the extremities of their hair round, in order to be like their god Bacchus, who, in their mythology, was the same with the sun. (See Herodot. lib. ii. c. 8.) Others think that this refers to a superstitious funeral rite; which they collect from the next verse, from ch. Leviticus 21:5 and from Deuteronomy 14:1 and this latter seems the most probable interpretation: for it is certain, this was an ancient heathen custom in token of excessive mourning. See Isaiah 15:2.Jeremiah 16:6; Jeremiah 48:37. Ezekiel 7:18. Thus the Greeks tore, cut off, and sometimes shaved their hair, in mourning for the dead: and we are told, that it was formerly the custom of the widows of Florida, when their husbands were slain, to cut their hair quite off, and to scatter it over their husbands' graves.