Locks

LOCKS [ISBE]

LOCKS - loks ((1) tsitsith, (2) pera'; (3) machlaphah, (4) qewutstsah): See in general the article on HAIR. (1) The first word, tsitsith, means really a tassel, such as is worn by the Jews on the four corners of the prayer-shawl or Tallith and on the 'arba` kanephoth (Dt 22:12), translated in the New Testament by kraspedon (Mt 9:20; 14:36; 23:5; Mk 6:56; Lk 8:44). Once it is applied to a forelock of hair. The prophet Ezekiel, describing his sensations which accompanied his vision of Jerusalem, says: "He put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerus" (Ezek 8:3). (2) The word pera` signifies the uncut and disheveled locks of the Nazirite (Nu 6:5) or of the priests, the sons of Zadok (Ezek 44:20). (3) The Book of Judges employs the word machlaphah when speaking of the "seven locks" of Samson (Jdg 16:13,19), which really represent the plaited (etymologically, "interwoven") strands of hair still worn in our days by youthful Bedouin warriors. (4) Qewutstsah (Song 5:2,11) means the luxuriant hair of the Hebrew youth, who was careful of his exterior. It is called bushy (the Revised Version margin "curling") and black as a raven. the King James Version translations also the word tsammah with "locks" (Song 4:1; 6:7; Isa 47:2), but the Revised Version (British and American) has corrected this into "veil," leaving the word "locks" in Song 4:1 margin.

H. L. E. Luering