Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
GOD'S PEOPLE MUST NOT DISFIGURE THEMSELVES IN MOURNING. (Deuteronomy 14:1-2)
ye shall not cut yourselves . . . for the dead--It was a common practice of idolaters, both on ceremonious occasions of their worship (1 Kings 18:28), and at funerals (compare Jeremiah 16:6; Jeremiah 41:5), to make ghastly incisions on their faces and other parts of their persons with their finger nails or sharp instruments. The making a large bare space between the eyebrows was another heathen custom in honor of the dead (see on Leviticus 19:27-28; Leviticus 21:5). Such indecorous and degrading usages, being extravagant and unnatural expressions of hopeless sorrow (1 Thessalonians 4:13), were to be carefully avoided by the Israelites, as derogatory to the character, and inconsistent with the position, of those who were the people of God [Deuteronomy 14:2].
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Deuteronomy 14:1
Deuteronomy 28:10
Jeremiah 41:5
Ezekiel 27:31
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