Jeremiah 48:37

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.

Or, shaven.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(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.

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.

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.

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.

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;

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

scratches Heb. גדדת.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.