Isaiah 22:12 - Exposition

In that day. The day alluded to in Isaiah 22:7 , when the choice valleys in the neighborhood of Jerusalem were first seen to be full of a hostile soldiery, and the Assyrian horsemen were observed drawing themselves up opposite the gates. Such a sight constituted an earnest call upon the people for immediate repentance. Baldness (comp. Isaiah 15:2 ; Micah 1:16 ; Amos 8:10 ). It has been said that "baldness" was forbidden by the Law (Cheyne); but this is not so, absolutely. Baldness was wholly forbidden to the priests (Le Isaiah 21:5 ; comp. Ezekiel 44:20 ); and certain peculiar modes of shaving the hair, the beard, and the eyebrows, practiced by idolatrous nations, were prohibited to all the people (Le 19:27; Deuteronomy 14:2 ). But such shaving of the head as was practiced by Job ( Job 1:20 ) and other pious men, was not forbidden to laymen, any more than the wearing of sackcloth. It was regarded as a natural mode of exhibiting grief.