Earrings

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

 nezem , which also includes the nose ring hanging on one side of the nose ( Genesis 24:47, where the words "upon her face" imply either a nose ring or one to be hung from her forehead,  Genesis 35:4). Circular, as its other name  'agil implies. Oriental men wore them as well as women.  Judges 8:24 seems to imply that the Israelite men did not wear them, as did the Ishmaelites; but  Exodus 32:2 proves that young "sons" wore them. There were besides  netiphot ( Judges 8:26), not "collars" but pearlshaped "ear drops," or jewels attached to the rings, or else pendent scent bottles, or pendants from the neck on the breast, "Chains" KJV ( Isaiah 3:19;  Isaiah 3:21), "earrings" ( leehashim , from  laachash "to whisper"), AMULETS with magic inscriptions, and so surrendered along with the idols by Jacob's household ( Genesis 35:4).

The best use made of them was that in  Numbers 31:50, an offering to the Lord to "make atonement for souls"; not that our gifts can wipe away guilt, but acknowledgments of God's grace not being offered in loving gratitude evince an unatoned state, and so a state of guilt. When offered in loving faith, they evidence and seal visibly our reception of the atonement ( Luke 7:44-47). The "phylacteries," headbands,  totapkot ( Matthew 23:5) in the Talmudists' opinion were the sanctioned antidote to the idolatrous amulets and "earrings" ( Deuteronomy 6:7-8;  Deuteronomy 11:18-19; contrast  Hosea 2:13;  Isaiah 3:21,  lechashim . But the language in Deuteronomy and in  Exodus 13:9;  Exodus 13:16 is rightly taken by the Karaite Jews as proverbial, not literal; as is apparent from the reason added, "that the law of Jehovah may be in thy mouth"; for it is by receiving the law into the heart, and by keeping it, that it would be naturally on the tongue continually.

God does not say that His law was to be written upon scrolls, but to be "for a sign upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes," i.e., was to be kept in view like memorials upon the forehead and the hand, the prominent visible parts symbolizing respectively open confession and action ( Revelation 13:16;  Revelation 22:4). This view is proved by  Proverbs 3:3;  Proverbs 4:21;  Proverbs 6:21-22;  Proverbs 7:3. But latterly the Jews used the "phylacteries,"  totaphot , or  tephillim , prayer fillets, parchment strips with sentences of the law, bound on the forehead or left arm during prayer.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

 Earrings. The material of which earrings were made was generally gold,  Exodus 32:2, and their form was generally circular. They were worn by women and by youth of both sexes. These ornaments appear to have been regarded with superstitious reverence as an amulet. On this account, they were surrendered, along with the idols, by Jacob's household.  Genesis 35:4.

Chardin describes earrings with talismanic figures and characters on them as still existing in the East. Jewels were sometimes attached to the rings. The size of the earrings still worn in eastern countries far exceeds what is usual among ourselves; hence, they formed a handsome present,  Job 42:11, or offering, to the service of God.  Numbers 31:50.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Genesis 24:22 Genesis 24:47 Exodus 32:2 Exodus 35:22 Numbers 31:50 Judges 8:24-26 Ezekiel 16:12 Genesis 35:2-4 Isaiah 3:20  Proverbs 25:12

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Genesis 35:4 Numbers 31:50 Ezekiel 16:12 Genesis 24:47  Isaiah 3:20  Exodus 32:2

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

See Rings .

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

No custom is more ancient or universal than that of wearing earrings, from which it would appear to be a very natural idea to attach such an ornament to the pendulous lobe of the ear. Of the two words in Hebrew denoting earrings, one implies roundness, and it is a fact that nearly all the ancient earrings exhibited in the sculptures of Egypt and Persepolis are of a circular shape. The other word is also applied to a nose-jewel, from which we may suppose that it was a kind of earring, different from the other and more similar to the nose-jewel. Earrings of certain kinds were anciently, and are still, in the East, instruments or appendages of idolatry and superstition, being regarded as talismans and amulets. Such probably were the earrings of Jacob's family, which he buried with the strange gods at Bethel .

No conclusion can be formed as to the shape of the Hebrew earrings except from the signification of the words employed, and from the analogy of similar ornaments in ancient sculpture. Those worn by the Egyptian ladies were large, round, single hoops of gold, from one inch and a half to two inches and one-third in diameter, and frequently of still greater size, or made of six single rings soldered together. Such probably was the round 'agil' of the Hebrews. Among persons of high or royal rank the ornament was sometimes in the shape of an asp, whose body was of gold set with precious stones [AMULET]. Silver earrings have also been found at Thebes, either plain hoops like the earrings of gold, or simple studs. The modern Oriental earrings are more usually jeweled drops or pendants than circlets of gold. But the writer has seen a small round plate of silver or gold suspended from a small ring inserted into the ear. This circular plate (about the size of a halfpenny) is either marked with fanciful figures or set with small stones. It is the same kind of thing which, in that country (Mesopotamia), is worn as a nose-jewel, and in it we perhaps find the Hebrew earring which is denoted by the same word that describes a nose-jewel.

The use of earrings appears to have been confined to the women among the Hebrews. That they were not worn by men is implied in , where gold earrings are mentioned as distinctive of the Ishmaelite tribes.