What Does it Mean to Poll Thy Head?
- The King James Version of the Bible translates Micah 1:15 as "Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee."
- In "The Holy Scriptures With Commentary," Max Leopold Margolis explains that shaving your head initially related to "superstitious conceptions" in primitive times, and signified grief and self-abasement. Forbidden in Deuteronomy 14:1, the Hebrews considered shaving to be a rejection of the natural -- and therefore a rejection of God -- explains the Bible Meanings website.
- References to shaving also appear in other books of the Old Testament, including in Leviticus 14:8, Deuteronomy 21:12, and Isaiah 7:20.
