Word study

Scepter

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: scepter, scepters. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “scepter” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • שֵׁבֶט shêbeṭrod, staff, club, sceptretranslated this way 14 times of its 168 uses · Strong’s H7626Noun  ·  Translated: tribes 70, tribe 42, rod 22, scepter 14

    Genesis 49:10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his.

    Numbers 24:17 I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come forth from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel. He will crush the skulls of Moab and strike down all the sons of Sheth.

    Full study and all 159 verses →
  • שַׁרְבִיט sharbîṭsceptretranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H8275Noun  ·  Translated: scepter 4

    Esther 4:11 “All the royal officials and the people of the king’s provinces know that one law applies to every man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned— that he be put to death. Only if the king extends the gold scepter may that person live. But I have not been summoned to appear before the king for the past thirty days.”

    Esther 5:2 As soon as the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she found favor in his sight. The king extended the gold scepter in his hand toward Esther, and she approached and touched the tip of the scepter.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • חָקַק châqaqcut in, inscribe, decreetranslated this way 3 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H2710Verb  ·  Translated: inscribed 3, scepter 2

    Numbers 21:18 The princes dug the well; the nobles of the people hollowed it out with their scepters and with their staffs.” From the wilderness the Israelites went on to Mattanah,

    Psalm 60:7 Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim is My helmet, Judah is My scepter.

    Full study and all 19 verses →
  • מַטֶּה maṭṭehstaff, rod, shafttranslated this way 2 times of its 219 uses · Strong’s H4294Noun  ·  Translated: tribe 123, staff 41, tribes 21, staffs 5Full study and all 200 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ῥάβδος rhábdosa rod, stafftranslated this way 4 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s G4464Noun  ·  Translated: staff 6, scepter 4, rod 1

    Hebrews 1:8 But about the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever, and justice is the scepter of Your kingdom.

    Revelation 2:27 He will rule them with an iron scepter and shatter them like pottery — just as I have received authority from My Father.

    Full study and all 11 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.