All you who are around him, bemoan him, and all you who know his name; say, ‘How the strong staff is broken, the beautiful rod!’
Parallel Translations
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All you who are around him, bemoan him, and all you who know his name; say, ‘How the strong staff is broken, the beautiful rod!’
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All ye that are about him, bemoan him; and all ye that know his name, say, How is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod!
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Bemoan him, all ye that are round about him, and all ye that know his name; say: 'How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod!'
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 48:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 9:4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.
- Isaiah 10:5 Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!
- Isaiah 14:4-5 that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!” Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,
- Isaiah 16:8 For the fields of Heshbon languish with the vine of Sibmah. The lords of the nations have broken down its choice branches, which reached even to Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness. Its shoots were spread abroad. They passed over the sea.
- Jeremiah 9:17-20 Yahweh of Armies says, “Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come. Send for the skillful women, that they may come. Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids gush out with waters. For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, ‘How we are ruined! We are greatly confounded because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.’ ” Yet hear Yahweh’s word, you women. Let your ear receive the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters wailing. Everyone teach her neighbor a lamentation.
- Jeremiah 48:31-33 Therefore I will wail for Moab. Yes, I will cry out for all Moab. They will mourn for the men of Kir Heres. With more than the weeping of Jazer I will weep for you, vine of Sibmah. Your branches passed over the sea. They reached even to the sea of Jazer. The destroyer has fallen on your summer fruits and on your vintage. Gladness and joy is taken away from the fruitful field and from the land of Moab. I have caused wine to cease from the wine presses. No one will tread with shouting. The shouting will be no shouting.
- Jeremiah 48:39 “How it is broken down! How they wail! How Moab has turned the back with shame! So will Moab become a derision and a terror to all who are around him.”
- Ezekiel 19:11-14 It had strong branches for the scepters of those who ruled. Their stature was exalted among the thick boughs. They were seen in their height with the multitude of their branches. But it was plucked up in fury. It was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up its fruit. Its strong branches were broken off and withered. The fire consumed them. Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. Fire has gone out of its branches. It has devoured its fruit, so that there is in it no strong branch to be a scepter to rule.’ This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.”
- Zechariah 11:10-14 I took my staff Favor, and cut it apart, that I might break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples. It was broken in that day; and thus the poor of the flock that listened to me knew that it was Yahweh’s word. I said to them, “If you think it best, give me my wages; and if not, keep them.” So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. Yahweh said to me, “Throw it to the potter, the handsome price that I was valued at by them!” I took the thirty pieces of silver, and threw them to the potter, in Yahweh’s house. Then I cut apart my other staff, even Union, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
- Revelation 18:14-20 The fruits which your soul lusted after have been lost to you. All things that were dainty and sumptuous have perished from you, and you will find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, who were made rich by her, will stand far away for the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, she who was dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls! For in an hour such great riches are made desolate.’ Every ship master, and everyone who sails anywhere, and mariners, and as many as gain their living by sea, stood far away, and cried out as they looked at the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What is like the great city?’ They cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had their ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her great wealth!’ For she is made desolate in one hour. “Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints, apostles, and prophets; for God has judged your judgment on her.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The Prophet seems indeed to exhort all neighbors to…
The Prophet seems indeed to exhort all neighbors to sympathy; but we have stated for what purpose he did this; for it was not his object to show that the Moabites deserved pity, so that their neighbors ought to have condoled with them in their calamities: but by this figurative mode of speaking he exaggerated the grievousness of the evils which were soon to happen to the Moabites; as though he had said, “This judgment of God will be so dreadful as to make all their neighbors to tremble; all who had previously known the state of the people of Moab, will be smitten with such terror as will make them to groan and mourn with them.” In short, the Prophet had nothing else in view than to show that God’s vengeance on the Moabites would not be less severe and dreadful than it had been on the ten tribes, and what it would be on the tribe of Judah.
Say ye, he says, how is the staff broken? He introduces here all their neighbors as astonished with wonder; for the same purpose are other things mentioned, even to show that the calamity of Moab would be deemed a prodigy, for the people thought them unassailable, and no one had ever dared to attempt anything against their land. This, then, was the reason why the Prophet here asks as one astonished, even in the person of all nations, How has it happened that the staff is broken? and the beautiful rod? These are metaphorical words, which refer to the royal dignity and the condition of the whole people. It follows —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain How are they destroyed that put their trust in…
How are they destroyed that put their trust in their strength and riches?
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 48:17 All ye that are about him, bemoan…
Jer 48:17 All ye that are about him, bemoan him; and all ye that know his name, say, How is the strong staff broken, [and] the beautiful rod!
Ver. 17. All ye that are about him, bemoan him.] And that ye may not want a form, say ye, How is the strong staff broken!
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain All ye that are about him, bemoan him: the…
All ye that are about him, bemoan him: the prophet having spoken of Moab’s calamity as already come upon him, or at least very near, calls to his friends to come and condole with him, as is usually done in case of some calamity befallen to a friend.
All ye that know his name, say, How is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod! All ye that know how terrible Moab hath been to others, and how famous for mighty and strong men, say, How is this potent nation, and this people that hath been such a rod against others, or hath ruled over so many others, broken! for both a staff and a rod are as well ensigns of power and government, as instruments to punish offenders.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon,.... A city in…
Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon,.... A city in Moab; See Gill on Isa 15:2. The Targum is,
"O kingdom of the congregation of Dibon;''
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but this was not a kingdom of itself, though a principal city in the kingdom of Moab:
come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst; in a dry and thirsty land; in want of all the necessaries of life; in captivity; who before abounded with all good things, inhabiting a well watered and fruitful soil; see Isa 15:9; but now called to quit all their former glory and happiness, their fulness and felicity, and submit to the greatest straits and difficulties:
for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds; the king of Babylon and his army, who spoiled the other cities of Moab; he should come against this also, and take it, and demolish its fortifications, by reason of which it thought itself secure; but these should not be able to protect it.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Staff - A staff and a rod are as…
Staff - A staff and a rod are as well, ensigns of power and government, as instruments to punish offenders.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 17. How is the strong staff broken] The…
Verse 17. How is the strong staff broken] The sceptre. The sovereignty of Moab is destroyed.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The lamentation over Moab uttered by those “round about…
The lamentation over Moab uttered by those “round about him,” i. e., the neighboring nations, and those “that know his name,” nations more remote, who know little more than that, there is such a people, takes the form of an elegy. The metaphorical expressions, “staff of strength,” and “rod” or “scepter of beauty,” indicate the union of power and splendor in the Moabite kingdom.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain His name, as particular friends, Exodus xxxiii. 12, 17.…
His name, as particular friends, Exodus xxxiii. 12, 17. People in the East had a secret name, which they disclosed to very few, to prevent incantations. --- Rod. This nation was exceedingly vain, ver. 29.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain bemoan--Not that Moab deserves pity, but this mode of…
bemoan--Not that Moab deserves pity, but this mode of expression pictures more vividly the grievousness of Moab's calamities.
all ye that know his name--those at a greater distance whom the fame of Moab's "name" had reached, as distinguished from those "about him," that is, near.
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strong staff . . . rod--Moab is so called as striking terror into and oppressing other peoples (Isa 9:4; Isa 14:4-5); also because of its dignity and power (Psa 110:2; Zac 11:7).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain PARTICULARS OF MOAB’S RUIN, Jer_48:16-25.
PARTICULARS OF MOAB’S RUIN, Jer_48:16-25.
17. Strong staff… beautiful rod — The power and the splendour of Moab have departed.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 17. For the use of “How” introducing a lament,…
17. For the use of “How” introducing a lament, cp. Lam_1:1; Lam_2:1; Lam_4:1.
the strong staff (mg. sceptre) … the beautiful rod] For these expressions, as implying national glory and power over others, cp. Psa_110:2; Isa_14:29; Eze_19:11-12; Eze_19:14.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 17-25. How lamentable that such a glorious sceptre…
Vers. 17-25. How lamentable that such a glorious sceptre should be broken! But there is no remedy. Even Dibon, that highly honoured town, is disgraced. There is no hiding the sad fate of the Moabites; the crowds of fugitives sufficiently proclaim it. Judgment has been passed upon all the cities of Moab, a long roll of whose names is recited.
All ye that are about him; i.e. the neighbouring nations. (see on Jer_46:14) The invitation to condolence is not ironical, but in the deepest spirit of human sympathy, as in the parallel prophecy in Isaiah. (see on Isa_15:5) The strong staff; i.e. the sceptre as an image of royal authority. (comp. Eze_19:11-14) Rod; as in Psa_110:2.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain How is the strong staff broken.
Jer_48:17
How is the strong staff broken.
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The strong staff and the beautiful rod
I. The purposes of our Heavenly Father in great bereavements.
1. To teach us that we should not misplace our trust.
2. To convince us of our sins and to sever us from them.
3. To teach us His own independence of the instruments He employs.
4. To remind us of the sovereignty of God.
5. To exhibit His wise and watchful providence.
II. The duties to which we are, and such scenes, specially called.
1. We are to exercise submission.
2. That we should profit by the example of those who have died in the Lord.
3. That we should cease from man and put our trust in God. (W. R. Williams.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.