Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I [am] the LORD. (Leviticus 19:28 KJV)
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am Jehovah. (Leviticus 19:28 ASV)
And cuttings for a dead person shall ye not make in your flesh, nor put any tattoo writing upon you: I am Jehovah. (Leviticus 19:28 DBY)
“‘You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you. I am Yahweh. (Leviticus 19:28 WEB)
And a cutting for the soul ye do not put in your flesh; and a writing, a cross-mark, ye do not put on you; I [am] Jehovah. (Leviticus 19:28 YLT)
Interlinear
Ye shall not make <nathan> any <k@thobeth> cuttings <seret> in your flesh <basar> for the dead, <nephesh> nor print <nathan> any marks <qa`aqa`> upon you: I am the LORD. <Y@hovah> (Leviticus 19:28 KJV)
Patrick/Lowth/Whitby/Lowman Commentary
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh, Either with their nails, or with knives, or other sharp instruments; as the manner of the heathen was.
For the dead, To pacify the infernal spirits, and make them propitious to the dead; which was the end at which the gentiles aimed in slashing themselves. Otherwise, simple tearing their flesh, out of great grief and anguish of spirit, doth not seem to be prohibited, no more than tearing off their hair; which were in use among the Jews, without any offence against this law, Jer 16:6-7; 41:5, and other places (see Maimonides De Idol. Cap. 13, sect. 10-13; I. Gerard Vossius, De idol. P. 209, edit. 1; and Gierus, De luctu hebraeorum, cap. 10, sect. 2, 3). Huetius thinks that law of Solon’s, which was transcribed by the Romans into the twelve tables, “that women in mourning should not scratch their cheeks,” had its original from this law of Moses (Demonstr. Evang. Propos. 4. cap. 12, n. 2).
Nor print any marks upon you: If this refer to the dead (as the foregoing prohibition doth), then these marks were made by the gentiles in their flesh, at the funeral of their friends; that, by the compunction and pain they felt in their bodies, they might appease the infernal powers. And so Aben Ezra understands it: though there be no footsteps, that I can find, of this in any other author; but it is probable only from what goes before. There is far greater reason for another exposition, that these prints were made in the flesh, that they who had them might be known to belong to such or such a god. For it was the custom of idolaters, saith the often named R. Levi (Praecpt. 257), to devote themselves to their gods by notes or signs, “signifying they were their servants (for every one knows, in future times, slaves had marks set upon them to certify to whom they belonged), redeemed with their price, and stamped with their marks.” And these marks were made with a hot iron, in their hands, foreheads, or necks; or they were pricked with a needle dipped in glastum, as he says, which made blue spots in their skin; as the manner was among the Arabians, especially the Scenitae. And they expressed either the very name of the god to whose service they were consecrated, or else, by a proper character, denoted whom they honoured: as a thunderbolt signified they were devoted to Jupiter; a spear or helmet to Mars; a trident to Neptune, &c. And these were signs (or sacraments, as we may call them) whereby they were solemnly addicted to their worship.
It is possible there might be some nations then that made some marks in their flesh as an ornament to them: for at this day the women in Greenland do not paint their faces, which are very swarthy, but stigmatize them in several places, by drawing a needle and thread dipped in whale’s grease through the skin, in what figure they please. Such Tho. Bartholinus saith he had seen; though he fancied they did not this as an ornament, but in token they were marriageable; for they that were not had no such marks (Anatom. Histor Cent. 4. Hist. 90). But if any such thing were in use in ancient times, it easily might degenerate into the idolatrous custom before mentioned: for nothing more certain than that they made such marks in honour of Mars, the god of battle; and that he who devoted himself to Hercules, received “sacred marks, giving up himself to that god,” as Herodotus speaks (lib. 2. cap. 13) of one that fled to his temple in Egypt. And Lucian saith of the priests of the Syrian goddess, “they were all marked; some in their wrists, others in their necks; from whence all the Assyrians carry such brands or marks in their flesh.” And so are the Jews, that were initiated in the Egyptian rites, said (by the author of the third book of Maccabees) to be stigmatized with the leaves of ivy, which were the insignia of Bacchus. From which ancient practice, it is probable, Christians have derived the custom of printing the Jerusalem cross upon the arms of those who go to visit our Saviour’s sepulchre (see Tollius, in Carmina inedita Gregor. Nazianz. P. 160). I shall add no more, but that the Jews themselves were so inclined to receive such a badge as this, that they made no scruple to print the name of their own God in their flesh; as appears by that saying mentioned by Schickard out of the title Sopherim: “If any man write the name of God upon his flesh, let him neither wash nor anoint in that place” (see his Mishpat Hamelek, cap. 2. Theor. 5, and Carpzovius’s Annotations upon it).
I am the Lord. For this reason such marks were forbidden, because the Israelites were peculiarly devoted to him as their sovereign Lord and Benefactor (for the Syriac adds, your God); and therefore were not to own any other but him, whose mark they had received in circumcision; which made all other absolutely unlawful.