JU5-6: The Hair On A Man’s Head Was A Symbol Of Strength And Purity In Ancient Israel

“On that day D’vorah and Barak the son of Avino‘am sang this song:
“When leaders in Israel dedicate themselves,
and the people volunteer,
you should all bless Adonai.”
-Judges 5:1-2

From today, we’re going to begin our verse-by-verse study of the Song of Devorah.

Without any further ado, let’s get right to it.

The first verse has both Devorah and Barak singing this military victory poem.

This doesn’t mean Barak played a part in creating this song.

He didn’t.

It only means he was an equal partner with Devorah in this victory and thus gets equal billing.

I can say this with confidence because they’re other verses that make it clear Devorah and only Devorah was the author of this song.

However, we’ll also notice that Barak is often considered to be a judge, right alongside Devorah.

Onward.

In verse 2, we run headfirst into a phrase that’s mysterious and difficult to understand.

The Complete Jewish Bible says..“When leaders in Israel dedicate themselves“.

The King James version says…”when the people willingly offered themselves“.

The NIV says…”when the people willingly offer themselves“.

Okay, remember a couple of days ago when I wrote about how baffled an Israelite would be had he been exposed to the words of a rap song from Eminem?

Well, that exact same phenomenon is occurring with us right now.

Except in reverse.

Imagine we’ve just been transported back in time and are now looking at an ancient Israelite rap song so to speak.

In this phrase, most English Bibles will use some variation of “and the leaders in Israel dedicate themselves”.

But that’s NOT what the original Hebrew says.

The original Hebrew is …

…biphroa peraoth.

Literally it means…

…“When men let their hair grow in Israel”.

What in the heck does this mean?!

That’s what you’re probably thinking, right?

Let’s break this down.

First, I don’t think the word “leaders” should be used here.

This verse isn’t talking about some special category of men who came from the leadership class of Israel.

No, it’s referring to the common Israelite man from the Northern tribes who went to battle against Sisra and his army.

So I think the word “men” is appropriate.

Second, what is this talk concerning hair all about?

Again, this goes back to the importance of understanding the culture in which this song was created.

Obviously, hair had some commonly understood meaning among the tribes of Israel at this time.

So let’s talk about this for a minute.

In the Israelite culture, the hair on a person’s head was considered to be a symbol of both strength and purity.

We see this idea especially carried forth in the vows a Nazarite made.

When a Nazarite made a vow, during the vow period, he was forbidden from cutting his hair.

Finally, when the vow period ended, the Nazarite would go in the completely opposite direction and cut all his hair off (in other words, he’d get a buzz).

Afterwards, he’s take all of those clumps of hair and offer them up as a purification sacrifice at the Altar of Burnt Offering in the Temple.

This practice was still going on in Yeshua’s time.

And we even see the Apostle Paul performing this same ritual in the Book of Acts.

The situation was that his Jewish brethren were accusing him of being a lawbreaker as follows:

“They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses,telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs.What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come,so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow.  Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law.”-Acts 21:21-24

How did Paul respond?

Well, just read these next set of verses that come afterwards homies.

“The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them.”-Acts 21:26

This is the Nazarite vow we’re talking about here man.

And who was the most famous Nazarite of them all?

Was it not the judge Samson whose supernatural strength we’re told was directly connected to his long hair?

I don’t think it’s coincidental that Samson is gonna be making an appearance soon in our study of the Book of Judges.

My point is that among the northern tribes during this time, we can see that the hair on a man’s head had some kind of mystical or spiritual meaning attached to it.

Here’s another thing to keep in mind.

As a matter of historical fact, we also know the Canaanite men kept the exact opposite appearance.

They kept their hair short and trimmed their beards.

Therefore, as God’s chosen and separate people, it would have made sense for the Israelite men to do the opposite in order to maintain a separate visual identity from their heathen counterparts.

However, Israelite society in general wanted to look and behave like their Canaanite neighbors.

This is evidence of how far Israel had fallen during this time of the judges.

So when the Song of Devorah praises the men from the northern Israelite tribes for showing up to do battle with their hair uncut and fully grown, she’s praising them for the Nazarite-like dedication they were demonstrating.

They were rejecting the appearance of the Canaanites that most of Hebrew society had adopted at this time and were making a renewed commitment to obey Torah.

They were demonstrating in no uncertain terms they had decided to move TOWARDS God in contrast to the direction general society was moving in at this sad time in Israelite history.

Here’s another thing to consider.

Making such a vow was completely voluntary.

With that thought in mind, take a look at the next part of the verse:

“When leaders in Israel dedicate themselves,
and the people volunteer,”

Hmm…interesting.

We’re told the people volunteered or offered themselves up.

This is also specifically a Nazarite-like trait homies.

And it dovetails perfectly with the final words of the verse: “you should all bless Adonai”.

Holy helium hot chicken wings baby!

Can you now see how important it is to understand the ancient Hebrew culture in which the Bible was written?

Just like no ancient Israelite would have a hope in hell of understanding the expression preceding the sentence above without understanding my American culture, we don’t have a hope in hell of understanding their expressions without understanding their culture.

So now we understand what this is all about.

A group of courageous Israelite men came to their senses and realized the reason God had abandoned them was because they had rejected His Torah and tried to become like the gentiles in both behavior and appearance (major spiritual lesson here folks!).

So they decided to repent and re-dedicate themselves to the Lord like a Nazarite.

They let their hair grow out and volunteered to fight Israel’s enemies with a religious conviction that was practically non-existent in those days.

The result?

God granted them a smashing victory over their Canaanite oppressors.

Over and out homies.