Sceptre

(Hebrews שֵׁבֶט, she'bet), in its primary signification, like the equivalent σκῆπτρον (for the root of the Hebrew and Greek words seems identical; comp. also English shaft), denotes a staff of wood (Eze 19:11), about the height of a man, which the ancient kings and chiefs bore as insignia of honor (Homer, Iliad, 1, 234, 245; 2, 185 sq.; Am 1:5; Zec 10:11; Wisd. 10:14; comp. Ge 49:10; Nu 24:17; Isa 14:5; wand, Le 27:32). As such it is thought by some to have originated in the shepherd's staff, since the first kings were mostly nomad princes (Strabo, 16, 783; comp. Psalm 29). There were, however, some nations among whom the agricultural life must have been the earliest known; and we should not among them expect to find the shepherd's staff advanced to symbolical honor. Accordingly, Diodorus Siculus (3, 3) informs us that the scepter of the Egyptian kings bore the shape of a plow. The symbols of dominion, as represented on the Egyptian monuments, are various. That of Osiris was a flail and crook (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt, 1, 257); that of the queens, besides the crown (q.v.), was two loose feathers on their head (ibid. 1, 276). A carved ivory staff discovered at Nimrûd is supposed to have been a scepter (Layard, Nin. and Bab. p. 195). A golden scepter — that is, perhaps, one washed or plated with gold — is mentioned in Eze 4:11 (comp. Xenophon, Cyrop. 8, 7, 13; Homer, Iliad, 1, 15; 2, 268; Odyss. 11, 91). Other decorations of Oriental scepters are noticed by Strabo (16, 746). Inclining the scepter was a mark of kingly favor (Es 4:11), and the kissing it a token of submission (5:2). Saul appears to have carried his javelin as a mark of superiority (2Sa 8:14; comp. 1Sa 15:10; 1Sa 22:6). The use of the staff as a symbol of authority was not confined to kings, it might be used by any leader, as instanced in Jg 5:14, where for "pen of the writer," as in the A.V., we should read "scepter of the leader." Indeed, no instance of the scepter being actually handled by a Jewish king occurs in the Bible; the allusions to it are all of a metaphorical character, and describe it simply as one of the insignia of supreme power (Ps 45:6; Bar. 6:14). The term shebet is rendered in the A.V. "rod" in two passages where scepter is substantially meant, viz. in Ps 2:9, where "scepter of iron" is an expression for strong authority, and in Ps 125:3; a use derived from the employment of the same word as an ordinary "rod" of correction (Ex 21:10, and often), and even for beating out grain (Isa 28:27). SEE ROD.