sep´tẽr (שׁבט, shēbheṭ, שׁרביט, sharbhı̄ṭ, expanded form in [Est 4:11]; [Est 5:2]; [Est 8:4]; ῥάβδος, rhábdos (Additions to Esther 15:11; [Heb 1:8]), σκῆπτρος, skḗptros): A rod or mace used by a sovereign as a symbol of royal authority. The Hebrew shēbheṭ is the ordinary word for rod or club, and is used of an ordinary rod (compare [2Sa 7:14]), of the shepherd’s crook ([Psa 23:4]), scribe’s baton or marshal’s staff ([Jdg 5:14]), as well as of the symbol of royalty. Its symbolism may be connected with the use of the shēbheṭ for protection ([2Sa 23:21]; [Psa 23:4]) or for punishment ([Isa 10:24]; [Isa 30:31]). It is used with reference to the royal line descended from Judah ([Gen 49:10]), and figuratively of sovereignty in general and possibly of conquest ([Num 24:17], in Israel; [Isa 14:5], in Babylonia; [Amo 1:5], [Amo 1:8], in Syria, among Philistines; [Zec 10:11], in Egypt), the disappearance or cutting off of him that holdeth the scepter being tantamount to loss of national independence. The kingship of Yahweh is spoken of as a scepter ([Psa 45:6] (Hebrew verse 7) quoted in [Heb 1:8]). The manner of using the scepter by an oriental monarch is suggested in the act of Ahasuerus, who holds it out to Esther as a mark of favor. The subject touches the top of it, perhaps simply as an act of homage or possibly to indicate a desire to be heard. The scepter of Ahasuerus is spoken of as “golden” ([Est 5:2]), but it is probable that scepters were ordinarily made of straight branches (maṭeh) of certain kinds of vines ([Eze 19:11], [Eze 19:14]).
It is sometimes difficult to determine whether the word shēbheṭ is used in figurative passages in the sense of scepter or merely in the ordinary sense of staff (e.g. [Psa 125:3], the King James Version “rod,” the Revised Version (British and American) and the American Standard Revised Version “sceptre” (of the wicked); [Psa 2:9], “rod of iron”; [Pro 22:8], “rod of his wrath”). Another word, meḥōḳēḳ, literally, “prescribing” (person or thing), formerly translated uniformly “lawgiver,” is now generally taken, on the basis of parallelism, to mean “sceptre” in four poetic passages ([Gen 49:10], “ruler’s staff” to avoid repetition; [Num 21:18]; [Psa 60:7]; [Psa 108:8]).
