Locks
Morrish Bible Dictionary [1]
These in the East were anciently very rude contrivances. They were made of wood with long wooden bolts into which were driven a few pins which dropped into holes and held the bolt secure. The key, also of wood with corresponding pins, would raise the pins of the bolt, andallow it to be shot back. Judges 3:23,24; Nehemiah 3:3-15; Song of Solomon 5:5 .
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [2]
loks ((1) ציצת , cı̄cı̄th , (2) פּרע , pera‛ ; (3) מחלפה , maḥlāphāh , (4) קרצּה , ḳewūccāh ): See in general the article on Hair . (1) The first word, cı̄cı̄th , 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‛ kanephōth ( Deuteronomy 22:12 ), translated in the New Testament by κράσπεδον , kráspedon ( Matthew 9:20; Matthew 14:36; Matthew 23:5; Mark 6:56; Luke 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" ( Ezekiel 8:3 ). (2) The word pera‛ signifies the uncut and disheveled locks of the Nazirite ( Numbers 6:5 ) or of the priests, the sons of Zadok ( Ezekiel 44:20 ). (3) The Book of Judges employs the word maḥlāphāh when speaking of the "seven locks" of Samson ( Judges 16:13 , Judges 16:19 ), which really represent the plaited (etymologically, "interwoven") strands of hair still worn in our days by youthful Bedouin warriors. (4) Kewūccāh ( Song of Solomon 5:2 , Song of Solomon 5:11 ) 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 cammāh with "locks" ( Song of Solomon 4:1; Song of Solomon 6:7; Isaiah 47:2 ), but the Revised Version (British and American) has corrected this into "veil," leaving the word "locks" in Song of Solomon 4:1 margin.
