Deuteronomy21:12

Previous Verse Next Verse

Translation

Then you must bring her home to your house, and she must shave her head and do something with her nails,

Go to footnote number

Paraphrase

you must bring her home to your house, then you will give her time to mourn her losses and also to become a convert to Judaism, demonstrated by the typical signs of mourning and converting.

Footnotes

1

The word I have rendered “do something with” can mean a number of things, including, “do, make, prepare, produce, fashion, accomplish, deal with, attend to” and a few other things. The main idea is “make.” It appears that some cultures let their nails grow long as a sign of mourning, while other cultures trimmed the nails close or did something different with the nails. That might be the reason for the use of such a vague word, but actually Hebrew uses vague words like this quite often, allowing context to determine what is meant.