Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?

You believe that God is one; well and good. ¹  Even the demons believe that – and tremble with fear. ² 

But Jacob ¹  replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. ²  If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair ³  in sorrow to the grave.” ⁴ 

Look, you will conceive and have a son. ¹  You must never cut his hair, ²  for the child will be dedicated to God ³  from birth. He will begin to deliver Israel from the power ⁴  of the Philistines.”

Finally he told her his secret. ¹  He said to her, “My hair has never been cut, ²  for I have been dedicated to God ³  from the time I was conceived. ⁴  If my head ⁵  were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be just like all other men.”

She made a vow saying, “O Lord of hosts, if you will look with compassion ¹  on the suffering of your female servant, ²  remembering me and not forgetting your servant, and give a male child ³  to your servant, then I will dedicate him to the Lord all the days of his life. His hair will never be cut.” ⁴ 

Burn a third of it in the fire inside the city when the days of your siege are completed. Take a third and slash it with a sword all around the city. Scatter a third to the wind, and I will unleash a sword behind them.

“But Esau my brother is a hairy man,” Jacob protested to his mother Rebekah, “and I have smooth skin! ¹ 

He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau’s hands. So Isaac blessed Jacob. ¹ 

The sword will make people childless outside, and terror will do so inside; they will destroy ¹  both the young man and the virgin, the infant and the gray-haired man.

Joab said to Amasa, “How are you, my brother?” With his right hand Joab took hold of Amasa’s beard as if to greet him with a kiss.

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord; he did not repudiate ²  the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin.

So Hanun seized David’s servants and shaved their beards off. ¹  He cut off the lower part of their robes so that their buttocks were exposed ²  and then sent them away.

Then Job got up ¹  and tore his robe. ²  He shaved his head, ³  and then he threw himself down with his face to the ground. ⁴ 

You who tear yourself ¹  to pieces in your anger, will the earth be abandoned ²  for your sake? Or will a rock be moved from its place? ³ 

for he is ¹  like someone calculating the cost ²  in his mind. ³  “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you;

Pick up millstones and grind flour! Remove your veil, strip off your skirt, expose your legs, cross the streams!

The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning. The people of Ashkelon will be struck dumb. How long will you gash yourselves to show your sorrow, ¹  you who remain of Philistia’s power? ² 

They will wear sackcloth, terror will cover them; shame will be on all their faces, and all of their heads will be shaved bald. ¹ 

But any woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered disgraces her head, for it is one and the same thing as having a shaved head.