Dictionaries :: Ornaments, Personal

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Ornaments, Personal:

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 24:53). 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.