Just so, Nehemiah the governor commanded these offending Jews to be beaten and made bald by the officers of the court.
One of the most flourishing trades in an Eastern city is the trade of the barber.

This may easily be seen by walking through the streets of an Eastern town, and noting the numerous barbers at work, some in their shops, which are open to the street, and others outside on the doorsteps, or in some shady corner.

Especially in the evening are these numerous barbers busy; when the work of the rest of the city is drawing to a close the barber's work is at its height.

Yet, strange to say, although the barber is so busy, everyone in the East wears a beard; a man in the East would think it a terrible disgrace if he was obliged to be shorn of his beard.
The beard is considered a very sacred thing; it is thought a great insult even to touch a man's beard, and if you want to make any man an object of scorn and ridicule, you cannot do so better than by shaving off his beard.

This was the way in which the Ammonites insulted David's ambassadors (2 Sam.x.4, 5).