staf: Many Hebrew terms are represented by this word. The "staves" of the ark translate the word badh, literally, "a part," hence, branch, bar, etc. (Ex 25:13,14,15,27,28, etc.). Other words, as matteh, maqqel, shebhet, used of the staff in the hand, the shepherd's staff, figuratively, "staff of bread" (matteh,Eze 4:16;5:16;14:13), as indispensable for support of life, are dealt with underROD(which see). The New Testament word is rhabdos (Mt 10:10parallelLu 9:3;Heb 11:21).
See alsoSCEPTRE.