Psalms 133:2
Psalms 133:22It is like fine oil on the head, running down on the beard, running down Aaron’s beard over the collar of his robes.
The Watchtower reads as part of David's celebration of unity among brothers — anointing oil running down Aaron's beard symbolises blessing and shared identity. The reference to the high priest's beard is acknowledged historically but not treated as relevant to the Watchtower's beard policy: Aaron's facial hair is read as a cultural feature of the Old Testament priestly office, not as a biblical norm for Christian male appearance.
names Aaron's beard explicitly — the high priest of Israel whom Jehovah chose to represent his people had a beard, and the beard is treated as part of the picture of blessing. Pair with the Watchtower's sixty-year prohibition on beards (until the October 2023 reversal): brothers were denied pioneering, judicial-committee privileges, and prospective marriages over a rule that ran counter to the appearance of Aaron the high priest, the prophets, the apostles, and Jesus himself. ("let each one be fully convinced in his own mind") and (decrees of "do not handle, do not taste, do not touch" as "self-made religion") are the standard Protestant counter. Wherever an organisation binds the conscience on a matter Scripture leaves to the believer — and then unbinds it decades later when the cultural climate shifts — the rule was never from God to begin with.