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Jeremiah 48:37

in Jeremiah 48

For every head is shaved and every beard is clipped; on every hand is a gash, and around every waist is sackcloth.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

For every head is bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands are cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.

KJV

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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This verse in Jeremiah 48

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

the pride of Moab

on Jeremiah 48:29-39

The indictment is piled in synonyms, his loftiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart, and much of this section speaks in Isaiah 15 and 16's own words, two prophets carrying one burden a century apart, which the commentators set side by side. The strange thing is who weeps: therefore will I howl for Moab, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer, mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, the judge mourning inside his own sentence, and the bench pauses here, because the oracle's compassion is the Lord's own. The vintage fails with none to tread with shouting, every head bald and every beard clipped, and Moab is broken like a vessel wherein is no pleasure.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

), which were expressions of a desperate grief, such as tempted men to be even their own destroyers. Job indeed rent his mantle and shaved his head, but he did not cut himself. When the flood of passion rises ever so high wisdom and grace must set bounds to it, set banks to it, to restrain it from such barbarities.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped,....

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

For every head shall be bald - These, as we have seen before, were signs of the deepest distress and desolation.
Cuttings - Compare Jer 16:6, and marginal references.

The words behind it

14 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Leviticus 19:28You must not make any cuts in your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.10 worksJeremiah 47:5The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning; Ashkelon will be silenced. O remnant of their valley, how long will you gash yourself?7 worksIsaiah 15:2–3Dibon goes up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails over Nebo, as well as over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard is cut off.4 worksJeremiah 41:5eighty men who had shaved off their beards, torn their garments, and cut themselves came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria, carrying grain offerings and frankincense for the house of the LORD.4 worksGenesis 37:34Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days.4 worksAmos 8:10I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.4 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
Leviticus 19:27You must not cut off the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.4 worksJeremiah 49:3Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai has been destroyed; cry out, O daughters of Rabbah! Put on sackcloth and mourn; run back and forth within your walls, for Milcom will go into exile together with his priests and officials.4 worksJeremiah 16:6“Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, nor will anyone cut himself or shave his head for them.3 worksIsaiah 20:2the LORD had already spoken through Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and the sandals from your feet.” And Isaiah did so, walking around naked and barefoot.3 worksIsaiah 3:24Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of styled hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, shame.3 worksGenesis 37:29When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes,2 worksEzekiel 27:31They will shave their heads for you and wrap themselves in sackcloth. They will weep over you with anguish of soul and bitter mourning.2 works2 Kings 6:30When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. And as he passed by on the wall, the people saw the sackcloth under his clothes next to his skin.2 worksEzekiel 7:18They will put on sackcloth, and terror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved.2 worksRevelation 11:3And I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”2 worksMark 5:5Night and day in the tombs and in the mountains he kept crying out and cutting himself with stones.2 works1 Kings 18:28So they shouted louder and cut themselves with knives and lances, as was their custom, until the blood gushed over them.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Jeremiah 16:6

    “Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, nor will anyone cut himself or shave his head for them.

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 14:1

      You are sons of the LORD your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead,

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Jeremiah 41:5

      eighty men who had shaved off their beards, torn their garments, and cut themselves came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria, carrying grain offerings and frankincense for the house of the LORD.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Jeremiah 47:5

      The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning; Ashkelon will be silenced. O remnant of their valley, how long will you gash yourself?

  • Through

    Jeremiah 41:5

    eighty men who had shaved off their beards, torn their garments, and cut themselves came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria, carrying grain offerings and frankincense for the house of the LORD.

    it leads to

    • 1 Kings 16:24

      He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver and built a city there, calling it Samaria after the name of Shemer, who had owned the hill.

    • Joshua 18:1

      Then the whole congregation of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. And though the land was subdued before them,

    • 2 Kings 25:9

      He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.

  • Through

    Jeremiah 47:5

    The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning; Ashkelon will be silenced. O remnant of their valley, how long will you gash yourself?

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 25:20

      all the mixed tribes; all the kings of Uz; all the kings of the Philistines: Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;

  • Through

    Genesis 37:34

    Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days.

    it leads to

    • Genesis 37:29

      When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes,

About Jeremiah

The Prophet Jeremiah, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Prophet Jeremiah, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Jeremiah: the study guide →Read Jeremiah 48 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Jeremiah 48 →