Christian Pure

What Does Jewelry Mean in the Bible? Rings, Earrings and Dreams

Christian Pure Team

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Summary

  • In the Bible, jewelry usually carries the meaning of the person who gives it, from Pharaoh’s ring on Joseph’s hand to the father’s ring on the prodigal son.
  • A ring in Scripture is usually a signet, a personal seal, so handing it over meant handing over a name and authority, as in Genesis 41, Esther 8 and Haggai 2:23.
  • The Hebrew word for Rebekah’s “earring” also means a nose ring, and earrings mark turning points both toward God and away from him, as at Bethel and at the golden calf.
  • Proverbs calls a parent’s teaching “an ornament of grace,” and the prophets use a bride’s jewels for joy and for a people who forgot their God.
  • Jewelry becomes a picture of pride or idolatry when God’s gifts are turned against him, yet Israel also gave its jewelry willingly to build the tabernacle.
  • God calls his faithful people “my jewels” in Malachi 3:17, using the Hebrew word for a treasured possession, and the high priest carried their names over his heart.
  • The Bible gives no meaning for dreams of rings, necklaces, earrings or gold, and asks us to test every dream against God’s word.

In the Bible, jewelry means what the giver means by it. A ring from a king’s hand hands over his authority, a bride’s jewels speak of joy, and God calls his own people “my jewels” (Malachi 3:17). When people take God’s gold and make an idol of it, the same jewelry becomes a picture of pride. Again and again in Scripture, jewelry is put on someone by someone else. Pharaoh “took off his ring from his hand, and put it…

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Bibliography (Click to show)
  • The Holy Bible, King James Version (public domain), via BibleGateway: Genesis 24:22, 24:47; 35:2, 35:4; 38:18, 38:25; 41:16, 41:42–43; Exodus 12:35; 19:5; 21:6; 28:29; 32:2–4; 33:5–6; 35:22; Esther 3:10; 8:2, 8:8; Proverbs 1:8–9; 3:22; 11:22; 25:12; Ecclesiastes 5:3; Song of Solomon 8:6; Isaiah 3:19–21; 61:10; 62:3; Jeremiah 2:32; 22:24; Ezekiel 16:11, 16:17; Daniel 2:28, 2:32; Haggai 2:23; Zechariah 9:16; Malachi 3:16–17; Matthew 1:12; Luke 15:19–22; 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:21; 1 Timothy 2:9–10; 1 Peter 3:3–4; Revelation 21:2.
  • Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890) and Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon (1906), entries for tabba’ath (ring), chotham (seal), nezem (nose ring, earring), pathil (cord) and segullah (treasured possession), via Bible Hub: 2885, 2368, 5141, 6616, 5459.

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