Bible Dictionary
Ornaments, Personal
Personal ornaments included rings, earrings, bracelets, anklets, necklaces, nose-rings, and other jewelry. Such adornments were widely worn in the ancient Near East, though Scripture sometimes associates excessive display with luxury and pride.
Definition
Personal ornaments were items of jewelry and adornment worn on the body, including rings, earrings, nose-rings, bracelets, anklets, armlets, necklaces, and chains. Such ornaments could be made of gold and richly decorated.
Biblical Usage
Scripture describes the adornment of Rebekah, the earrings of Jacob’s wives, Egyptian jewelry, and the extensive ornaments worn by luxurious women in Isaiah’s day.
Historical Background
Personal decoration was a notable feature of ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian dress. Ancient monuments show women wearing numerous ornaments of varied forms, and the supplied material indicates that similar finery was common in Palestine.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Smith's Bible Dictionary
The number, variety and weight of the ornaments ordinarily worn upon the person form one of the characteristic features of Oriental costume, in both ancient and modem times. The monuments of ancient Egypt exhibit the persons of ladies load with rings, earrings Of vary great size, anklets, armlets, bracelets of the most varied forms, richly-ornamented necklaces, and chains of various kinds. There is sufficient evidence in the Bible that the inhabitants of Palestine were equally devoted to finery. In the Old Testament. Isaiah, (Isaiah 3:18-23) supplies us with a detailed description of the articles with which the luxurious women of his day were decorated. Eliezer decorated Rebekah with “a golden nose-ring of half a shekel (1/4 oz.) weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels (4 1/2 oz.) weight of gold.” (Genesis 23:22) Earrings were worn by Jacob’s wives. (Genesis 35:4) The number of personal ornaments worn by the Egyptians, particularly by the females, 19 incidentally noticed in (Exodus 3:22)