NAIL ; Chald. the horny covering of the extremities of the fingers or toes of certain animals. The former of these names (which occurs Deut. xxi. 12) is derived from the use of the nail in scraping or scratching (from My="Du) ; with the same underlying idea the word is used of the stylus or graver (Jer. xvii. 1). The latter is used not only of the nail of a man (Dan. iv. 33), but also of the claw of an animal (Dan. vii. 19).
Considerable diversity of opinion has arisen as to the meaning of the injunction regarding the captive's nails in Dent. xxi. 12. The verb in the original (71V..1/, 'asah), translated ' pare' in the A. V., means simply, to work, to make, to pre pare. In 2 Sam. xix. 24, it is used of dressing the feet and trimming the hair ; and in general it may be understood, when applied to any part of the person, to indicate the using of means to make that portion such as it ought to be. This seems sufficient to exclude the notion that the captive damsel was simply to let her nails grow ; for it is absurd to suppose, that the injunction to do some thing to her nails means she was to do nothing to them. Further, the doing of the nails can only
mean the paring and trimming of them ; there is nothing else to be done to them. This concludes in favour of the rendering in the A. V. But why, it is asked, was the damsel to trim her nails ? Was this any sign of mourning, such as the shaving of the head, which was also enjoined on her ? The reply to this is, that whether it was a sign of mourn ing or not, it was in keeping with that state of seclusion in which she was required to remain for a month ; for, as Eastern women nourish the growth of their finger-nails, that greater effect may be given to the staining of them with henna, the injunction to pare them was virtually an injunction to abstain from one of the favourite appliances of the female toilette.—W. L. A.