The Hebrew word, _marat_, which is used here, means to make smooth, to polish, to peel.

The word hair is not expressed in the original.
We are surely not to suppose that Nehemiah, with his own hands, either struck these men or made them bald.

What he did was simply this.

He, as the head magistrate, inflicted a judicial punishment upon them, a double punishment.
(1) They were beaten.
(2) They were made bald.
We read (Matt, xxvii.

26) that Pontius Pilate took our Lord and scourged him; but we surely do not imagine that the Roman governor with his own hands inflicted the scourging, but we understand it to mean that he gave the order for the punishment to the Roman soldiers.