For every head is bald, and every beard clipped. There are cuttings on all the hands, and sackcloth on the waist.
Parallel Translations
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For every head is bald, and every beard clipped. There are cuttings on all the hands, and sackcloth on the waist.
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For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.
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For every head is bald, and every beard clipped; upon all the hands are cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.
Cross-references (19)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 48:37 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 37:34 Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days.
- Isaiah 15:2-3 They have gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off. In their streets, they clothe themselves in sackcloth. In their streets and on their housetops, everyone wails, weeping abundantly.
- Jeremiah 41:5 men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even eighty men, having their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and having cut themselves, with meal offerings and frankincense in their hand, to bring them to Yahweh’s house.
- Jeremiah 47:5 Baldness has come on Gaza; Ashkelon is brought to nothing, the remnant of their valley: how long will you cut yourself?
- Isaiah 20:2 at that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your sandals from off your feet.” He did so, walking naked and barefoot.
- Jeremiah 16:6 Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried. Men won’t lament for them, cut themselves, or make themselves bald for them.
- Genesis 37:29 Reuben returned to the pit, and saw that Joseph wasn’t in the pit; and he tore his clothes.
- Leviticus 19:28 “ ‘You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you. I am Yahweh.
- 1 Kings 18:28 They cried aloud, and cut themselves in their way with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them.
- 1 Kings 21:27 When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.
- 2 Kings 6:30 When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. Now he was passing by on the wall, and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth underneath on his body.
- Isaiah 3:24 It shall happen that instead of sweet spices, there shall be rottenness; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of well set hair, baldness; instead of a robe, a wearing of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty.
- Isaiah 37:1 When king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s house.
- Ezekiel 7:18 They will also clothe themselves with sackcloth, and horror will cover them. Shame will be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads.
- Ezekiel 27:31 They will make themselves bald for you, and clothe themselves with sackcloth. They will weep for you in bitterness of soul, with bitter mourning.
- Amos 8:10 I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.
- Micah 1:16 Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture; for they have gone into captivity from you!
- Mark 5:5 Always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones.
- Revelation 11:3 I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The Prophet describes at large a very great mourning.…
The Prophet describes at large a very great mourning. They were wont in great sorrow to pull off their hair, to shave their beard, and to put on sackcloth, or to gird it round their loins, and also to cut their hands with a knife or with their nails. As these things were signs of grief; Jeremiah puts them all together, in order to show that the calamity of Moab would not be common, but what would cause to the whole people extreme lamentation. They shall make bald, he says, their heads, their beard they shall pull off, or shave; for the word, to diminish, may signify either. Then he adds, the incisions in the hands; they shall tear their faces and their hands with their nails, or as some say, with a knife or a razor. As to sackcloth, it was also a sign of mourning. It is indeed certain that it was formerly the practice for men, as though it was innate in human nature, in great calamities to spread ashes on the head and to put on sackloth. But he has added other excesses which are not very congenial to nature, for it is not agreeable to humanity to pull off the beard, to make bald the head, or to tear the hands and the face with the nails. These things show excesses, suitable neither to men nor to women, — not to women on the ground of modesty, nor to men on the ground of manliness and strength of mind.
But mankind never control themselves, and whether they mourn or rejoice, they are ever led away to excesses, observing no moderation. There was also another evil connected with sackcloth and ashes; for when it was God’s design to lead men by these symbols to humble themselves, to consider their sins and to flee to his mercy, they were diverted to another end, even that he who mourned might appear miserable to others, and make a display of his weeping and tears. In short, besides excess, there was also this common evil, even hypocrisy. For men ever turn aside to what is vain, and dissemble in all things. But in this place there is no reason to dispute about mourning, for the Prophet means only that the Moabites would become most miserable, exhibiting all the symptoms of sorrow. 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 Or, shaven.
Or, shaven.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 48:37 For every head [shall be] bald, and…
Jer 48:37 For every head [shall be] bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands [shall be] cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.
Ver. 37. For every head shall be bald.] This was the doings among the Easterlings, in times of mourning.
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 These phrases are expounded in the beginning of the…
These phrases are expounded in the beginning of the following verse, There shall be lamentation generally upon all the house-tops of Moab. Shaving of the hair, and clipping the beards, and cutting themselves, were rites and ceremonies of mourning used by these heathens.
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 There shall be lamentation generally,.... Or, "all of it…
There shall be lamentation generally,.... Or, "all of it is mourning" (n); the whole country of Moab is in mourning; or all is full of mourning; all persons, places, and things, express nothing but mourning; go where you will, it is to be seen:
upon all the house tops of Moab, and in the streets thereof; the mourning, as it was general, it was public; it was seen by all, and everywhere; See Gill on Isa 15:3;
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for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure, saith the Lord; as an earthen vessel, which the potter does not like, and which is useless and unprofitable to any, and which he takes and dashes into pieces; into a thousand shivers, as the word (o) here signifies, and can never be put together again; or as a filthy unclean vessel a man cannot bear in his sight: Moab is by the Lord called his wash pot, Psa 60:8. The Moabites were vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction by their own this; and now the time of it was come.
(n) "totus luctus (est) vel omnia luctus (sunt)", Schmidt; "totus erit planctus", Junius & Tremellius; "per omnia erit planctus", Piscator. (o) "totalis confractio praedicitur", Schmidt.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 37. For every head shall be bald] These,…
Verse 37. For every head shall be bald] These, as we have seen before, were signs of the deepest distress and desolation.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Cuttings - Compare Jer 16:6, and marginal references.
Cuttings - Compare Jer 16:6, and marginal references.
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 Shaven, or "clipt," (Protestants; Haydock) as in mourning. ---…
Shaven, or "clipt," (Protestants; Haydock) as in mourning. --- Tied. Hebrew, "cut," chap. xvi. 6. (Calmet) --- Such signs of mourning were usual in those countries. The Romans let their hair grow. (Cicero, pro Sestio.) (Worthington)
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 (See on Jer 47:5; Isa 15:2-3).
(See on Jer 47:5; Isa 15:2-3).
upon all . . . hands--that is, arms, in which such cuttings used to be made in token of grief (compare Zac 13:6).
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 37. Head… bald,… beard clipped, upon… the hands… cuttings,…
37. Head… bald,… beard clipped, upon… the hands… cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth, are signs of abject grief and desolation.
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 37. All shall have the usual indications of mourning.…
37. All shall have the usual indications of mourning. See on ch. Jer_16:6.
37, 38. Cp. Isa_15:2 f. From “for I have broken” (Jer_48:38) to “upon Moab” (Jer_48:44) is either wholly or in a large part the work of a supplementer.
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. 37, 38 (first part). Based on Isa_15:2 (latter…
Vers. 37, 38 (first part). Based on Isa_15:2 (latter part), Isa_15:3 (first part). On the primitive Arabic, Egyptian, and Hebrew custom of cutting off the hair, see on Jer_16:6, and comp. Herod., 2:36. Clipped. The difference from the word in Isaiah is so slight that it may easily have arisen from a copyist. The meaning is virtually the same. Cuttings. So of Philistia; (Jer_47:5) see on Jer_16:6.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.