Nehemiah 13:25. I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair.
This is equivalent to what we term “tearing the hair out by the roots.” It was sometimes a self-inflicted suffering as a token of mourning (see Ezra 9:3), sometimes an act of wanton persecution (see Isa. 50:6), and sometimes punishment, as represented in the text. It is said that the ancient Athenians punished adulterers by tearing the hair from the scalp and then covering the head with hot ashes.