(6) Uncover not your heads.—Better, let not your heads be dishevelled. It was the custom for mourners to let their hair grow long, and let it fall in a disorderly and wild manner over the head and face. (See Leviticus 13:45; Leviticus 21:10; 2Samuel 15:30; 2Samuel 19:4, &c.) For this reason the priests who are consecrated to the service of the Lord are even on ordinary occasions not to shave their heads nor suffer their locks to grow long. (Ezekiel 44:20.) On this occasion more especially Aaron and his two surviving sons are forbidden to give way to these manifestations of grief, since it might be considered as a reflection upon the justice of the punishment.

Neither rend your clothes.—This was another ordinary manifestation of sorrow and mourning. (See Genesis 37:29; Genesis 37:34; Joshua 7:6; 2Samuel 13:21, &c.) To this day the Jews observe this custom of mourning for the death of their near relations; they tear their garments, let their hair and nails grow, and do not wash.

And lest wrath come upon all the people.—The transgression of this command would not only bring down upon Aaron and his sons the same awful judgment, but would expose the whole community to the Divine wrath. In virtue of the intimate connection which subsisted between the representative of the nation and the people, a sin committed by the high priest in his official position involved the whole community, and they had to share the consequences of the offence. (See Leviticus 4:3.)

But let your brethren.—The afflicted relatives were, however, not to be deprived of all the customary expressions of mourning. The whole house of Israel, who are here designedly called “the brethren” of the bereaved, to show the depth of their sympathy, were allowed to mourn over the great calamity which had thus befallen them.

Leviticus 10:6. Uncover not your heads — That is, give no signification of your sorrow; mourn not for them; partly lest you should seem to justify your brethren, and tacitly reflect upon God as too severe; and partly lest thereby you should be diverted from, or disturbed, in your present service, which God expects to be done cheerfully. But let the whole house of Israel bewail the burning — Not so much in compassion to them, as in sorrow for the tokens of divine displeasure.

10:3-7 The most quieting considerations under affliction are fetched from the word of God. What was it that God spake? Though Aaron's heart must have been filled with anguish and dismay, yet with silent submission he revered the justice of the stroke. When God corrects us or ours for sin, it is our duty to accept the punishment, and say, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. Whenever we worship God, we come nigh unto him, as spiritual priests. This ought to make us very serious in all acts of devotion. It concerns us all, when we come nigh to God, to do every religious exercise, as those who believe that the God with whom we have to do, is a holy God. He will take vengeance on those that profane his sacred name by trifling with him.Aaron and his two surviving sons are forbidden to show the accustomed signs of mourning, or to leave the court of the tabernacle in order to attend the funeral, because, from their office, they were especially concerned as consecrated priests in outwardly maintaining the honor of Yahweh. They were to bear visible testimony to the righteousness of the punishment of Nadab and Abihu. The people, on the other hand, as not formally standing so near to Yahweh, were permitted to "bewail" as an acknowledgment that the nation had a share in the sin of its priests. (Compare 1 Corinthians 12:26.)

Leviticus 10:6

Uncover not your heads - Or, "set free ... let go loose." It was a custom to let the hair grow long and fall loosely over the head and face Leviticus 13:45; 2 Samuel 15:30; 2 Samuel 19:4; and the substance of the command would thus be that they should not let the hair go disheveled. Ripping the clothes in front so as to lay open the breast was one of the most common manifestations of grief (see Genesis 37:29; Genesis 44:13; 2 Samuel 1:11; Job 1:20; Joel 2:13, etc.). The garments as well as the persons of the priests were consecrated; this appears to be the reason of the prohibition of these ordinary signs of mourning. Compare Leviticus 20:10.

Lest ye die - See Exodus 28:35 note.

6. Uncover not your heads—They who were ordered to carry out the two bodies, being engaged in their sacred duties, were forbidden to remove their turbans, in conformity with the usual customs of mourning; and the prohibition "neither rend your garments," was, in all probability, confined also to their official costume. For at other times the priests wore the ordinary dress of their countrymen and, in common with their families, might indulge their private feelings by the usual signs or expressions of grief. Uncover not your heads; either,

1. By putting off your mitres and bonnets, or ornaments, and going bare-headed, as mourners sometimes did. See Leviticus 13:45 Ezekiel 24:17,23. Or,

2. By shaving off the hair of your heads and beards, as mourners did. See Job 1:20 Jeremiah 7:29 41:5 Ezekiel 44:20 Micah 1:16. This latter may seem to be principally intended,

1. Because this ceremony of uncovering the head being used by the people as well as by the priests in case of mourning, as the places now alleged show; and the other ceremony here joined with it, of rending the clothes, being also common to the people; seems to imply that he speaks not of that uncovering of the head which was peculiar to the priests, but of that which was common both to priests and people, especially seeing that which is here forbidden to these priests is in the following words allowed to the people, to

bewail their death, which as at other times it was, so now probably might be performed by these same ceremonies.

2. Because the high priest is forbidden to uncover his head in way of mourning for the dead, not only at that time when he was in actual ministration, but at all times, even when he had neither his mitre nor any of the holy garments upon him, Leviticus 21:10.

Neither rend your clothes; give no signification of your sorrow; mourn not for them; partly lest you should seem to justify and approve of your brethren, and tacitly reflect upon God as too severe in his proceedings with them; and partly lest thereby you should be diverted from or disturbed in your present service, which God expects should be done cheerfully.

But let your brethren...bewail the burning, not so much in compassion to them against whom God hath showed such great and just indignation, as in sorrow for the tokens of Divine displeasure.

And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar, and unto Ithamar, his sons,.... His two younger sons, which yet remained; and so the Septuagint version adds, as in Leviticus 10:12.

uncover not your heads; that is, do not take off your mitre, as the Septuagint version; or the bonnets which they wore in the time of their ministry; for the Jewish priests always had their mitres and bonnets on when they sacrificed; in imitation of which, the Heathens had their heads covered when they offered their sacrifices (k): now it was the way, or custom of a mourner, as Ben Melech observes, to remove his mitre, bonnet, or tiara, from his head; but in this case, that no sign of mourning might be shown, Aaron and his sons are forbid to uncover the head: the Targum of Onkelos is,"do not increase the hair,''or nourish it, or suffer it to grow, as Jarchi and Ben Gersom interpret it: now in times of distress and mourning they used to let the hair grow, whether on the head or beard, see 2 Samuel 19:24 and in this the Jews were imitated by the Egyptians, contrary to other nations; the priests of the gods in other places, says Herodotus (l), took care of their hair (or wore their hair), in Egypt they are shaved; with others the custom is, for the head immediately to be shaved at funerals; but the Egyptians, at death, suffer their hair to grow in the parts before shaved; but this custom with the Jews, though at other times used, is here forbid Aaron and his sons:

neither rend your clothes, which was sometimes done at the report of the death of near relations, as children, in token of mourning, Genesis 37:34 but here it is forbid, that there might be no sign of it: it is a particular word that is here used: Ben Melech says, there is a difference between rending and tearing; tearing is in the body of a garment where there is no seam, but rending (which is what is here meant) where there is a seam: the priests rending their garments was after this manner, according to the Jewish canons (m),"an high priest rends below and a common priest above;''that is, as one of their commentators (n) interprets it, the former rends the extreme part of his garment next the feet, and the latter at the breast near the shoulder; but in this case no rent at all was to be made:

lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people; so very provoking to God would be any signs of mourning in Aaron and his sons, on this account:

but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled: though Aaron and his sons might not mourn on this occasion, the whole body of the people might, though not bewail so much the death of the persons, as the cause of it; and be concerned for the awful judgment of God, and for the wrath that was sone forth, lest it should proceed and destroy others also, all being sinners.

(k) "Purpureo velare comas", &c. Virgil. Aeneid. l. 3. Vid. Kipping. Rom. Antiqu. l. 1. c. 12. sect. 17. p. 495. (l) Euterpe sive, l. 2. c. 36. (m) Misn. Horayot, c. 3. sect. 5. (n) Bartenora in ib.

And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons, {c} Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people: but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the LORD hath {d} kindled.

(c) As though you lamented for them, preferring your carnal affection to God's just judgment; Le 19:18, De 14:1.

(d) In destroying Nadab and Abihu the chief, and menacing the rest, unless they repent.