BALDNESS — specifically a bald patch made by SHAVING the head as a mourning rite. Deuteronomy 14:1 forbids it ('you shall not make any baldness between your eyes for the dead') and Leviticus 21:5 forbids it to priests — yet the prophets keep commanding it as the fitting response to catastrophe (Isaiah 22:12; Jeremiah 16:6; Amos 8:10; Ezekiel 7:18). ⚠ Micah 1:16 turns it on the land as a bereaved mother: 'make yourself BALD… make your baldness wide as the vulture's, for your children have gone into exile' — shave your whole head bare, like the griffon-vulture's naked scalp, because your people are being deported. → first discussed at Micah 1:16