the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Staff
The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia
or Herodotus (1:195) and Strabo (16:746) assert that among the Babylonians every man carried a ring and a staff, which latter was decorated at the upper end with a carved representation of a flower or something similar. It seems to have been the universal custom among the ancient Hebrews also to carry a staff (comp. Genesis 38:18)âa custom which perhaps dates from the time when they lived the nomadic life of herdsmen. The staff was indispensable to the herdsman, for by means of it he kept his flock together (Exodus 4:2; Leviticus 27:32; Psalms 23:4; Micah 7:14; Zechariah 2:7); the upper end of the long staff was bent, as Egyptian illustrations indicate. Nor was the staff to be despised as a weapon (Psalms 23:4). Similarly, a long, perhaps straight, stick, with a goad at the end, was used by the peasants for driving and guiding the oxen before the plow, and also for breaking the clods behind it, as the peasants still use the stick to-day; this also was an effective weapon (Judges 3:31; 1 Samuel 13:21, 17:43). Finally, the staff was indispensable to the wanderer, and a support to the weak and sick (Genesis 32:10; Exodus 21:19; Zechariah 8:4). In the hands of the overseers it became an instrument of punishment, and therefore a badge of office (Isaiah 9:4, 30:31, et al.).
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Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Staff'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tje/s/staff.html. 1901.
