Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
Ye shall not round ... It seems probable that this fashion had been learned by the Israelites in Egypt; because the ancient Egyptians had their dark locks cropped short or shaved with great nicety, so that what remained on the crown appeared in the form of a circle surrounding the head, whilst the beard was dressed into a square form. This kind of coiffure had a highly idolatrous meaning; and it was adopted, with some slight variations, by the Arabs and other idolaters in ancient times (Jeremiah 9:25-26; Jeremiah 25:23, where "in the utmost corners" means having the extremity of their hair along the forehead, temples, or behind the ears, cut in a circular form: see Robinson's 'Biblical Researches.' vol 1:; 'Egypt's Testimony,' p. 123: cf. 'Herodotus," b. 3:, ch. 8:) Frequently a lock or tuft of hair was left on the hinder part of the head, the rest being cut round in the form of a ring, as the Turks, Chinese, and Hindus do at the present day.
Neither shalt thou mar ... The Egyptians used to cut or shave off their whiskers toward the ears, as may be seen in the coffins of mummies and the representations of divinities on the monuments. But the Hebrews, in order to separate them from the neighbouring nations, or perhaps to put a stop to some existing superstition, were forbidden to imitate this practice. It may appear surprising that Moses should condescend to such minutiae as that of regulating the fashion of the hair and the beard-matters which do not usually occupy the attention of a legislator-and which appear widely remote from the province either of a government or of a religion. A strong presumption, therefore, arises that he had it in view by these regulations to combat some superstitious practices of the Egyptians.