“These terms reflect the Lord’s judgment on Israel. Baldness is one of God’s judgments on the wicked (Jer. 47:4–5; 48:37; Ezek. 7:18), and it may refer to the ‘humiliating punishment known among the Babylonians’ in which the hair of the forehead would be shaved off. In addition, since the Hebrew word for atonement means ‘covering,’ an uncovered head may point to one who has lost some of the privileges of the Atonement” (Parry et al., Understanding Isaiah, 43–44).