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Nehemiah 13:24–25

Plucked hair or shaved heads

Nehemiah "contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair." The Hebrew verb marat means to pluck or pull; the library's Greek (Giguet) reads "shaved their heads"; the Vulgate "decalvavi" (made them bald). The children spoke "half in the speech of Ashdod."

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original Ezra–NehemiahMemoir c. 430 BC; book compiled c. 400–300 BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah
Greek
  1. Greek 2 Esdras 11–23 (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BC or laterTranslated from a Hebrew text of Ezra–Nehemiah
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgate (2 Esdras = Nehemiah)c. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Memoir c. 430 BC; book compiled c. 400–300 BC (debated)

    Original Ezra–Nehemiah

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. No Qumran fragment of Nehemiah has been identified.

  2. Translated c. 2nd century BC or later

    Greek 2 Esdras 11–23 (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of Ezra–Nehemiah

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    et j'en frappai quelques-uns, et je leur rasai la tête

    and I struck some of them and shaved their heads

    Greek 2 Esdras via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.

  3. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate (2 Esdras = Nehemiah)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Et cecidi ex eis viros, et decalvavi eos

    and I struck men of them and made them bald

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    וָאַכֶּה מֵהֶם אֲנָשִׁים וָאֶמְרְטֵם

    and I struck some men of them and pulled out their hair

    Marat: pluck, make bald (compare Ezra 9:3; Isaiah 50:6).

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair

What changed, and why

Pulling hair was public humiliation (compare Isaiah 50:6). Ezra pulled out his own hair in grief (Ezra 9:3, same verb); Nehemiah does it to others. The translations soften or sharpen the act differently. The site presents Nehemiah's own account of using force without softening it, and without making it a model.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedNehemiah reports striking men and pulling out their hair.
  • Independently documentedThe library's Greek reads "shaved their heads." Via Giguet's French.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • The Reforms and Their Human Costs →The law excluding Ammonites and Moabites is read, and the people separate the "mixed multitude." While Nehemiah is away at court, the high priest Eliashib gives Tobiah a temple storeroom. Returning, Nehemiah throws out Tobiah's goods, restores the Levites' portions, shuts the gates against Sabbath trade, and confronts men married to women of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab, whose children cannot speak Judean. He curses them, strikes some, pulls out their hair, and drives off the high priest's grandson, son-in-law to Sanballat. The book ends: "Remember me, O my God, for good."