Answers about…
earrings in the Bible

In ancient Middle Eastern nations they were worn by both sexes and by children. Earrings could be simple hoops or larger drop ornaments.

God, speaking as husband to Jerusalem said: “I put a ring in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head” (Ezekiel 16:12). Adornment = covenant favor.

Some Biblical references to earrings:

• Jacob’s household surrendered “the rings that were in their ears” along with foreign gods; he buried them under the oak at Shechem (Genesis 35:4).

  These were possibly amulets or had some other idolatrous association.

• Aaron collected gold earrings from wives, sons, and daughters to make the golden calf idol (Exodus 32:2, 3).

• “So we have brought near as an offering to Yahweh what each man found—articles of gold, armlets and bracelets, signet rings, earrings and necklaces—to make atonement for ourselves before Yahweh.” —Numbers 31:50 LSB

• The same people later gave earrings (and signet rings, brooches, bracelets) as a freewill offering for the Holy Tabernacle (Exodus 35:22).

• Gideon collected 1,700 shekels of gold earrings from the Ishmaelites (Judges 8:24, 25, 26); the text notes they wore them because they were Ishmaelites.

• Each of Job’s relatives give him a gold ring after his restoration.

  Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold. —Job 42:11 KJV

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  Idolatry in Israel betrayed God’s relationship

  So I will visit the days of the Baals upon her [kingdom of Israel]
  When she used to offer offerings in smoke to them
  And adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry
  And go after her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares Yahweh. —Hosea 2:13 LSB

  This is marriage metaphor. God speaks as the husband; Israel is the unfaithful wife. “Went after her lovers” is the wife leaving home to chase other men. In this prophecy that means Israel leaving Yahweh to chase other gods (the Baals).

  She put on the earrings/nose-ring and jewels — the very ornaments that, in the earlier conversation, often marked betrothal or status — to make herself attractive at the pagan festivals. Commentators note that the jewelry is used the way a prostitute uses finery: to draw lovers.

  She took silver and gold that Yahweh had given her and turned it into Baal images (Hosea 2:8).

  Then comes the sharpest line: “but Me she forgot.” The problem is not only that she loved others; she stopped remembering the husband who had actually supplied everything she credited to the lovers.

  Hosea’s own marriage to Gomer supplies the living illustration. Gomer’s adultery is real; Israel’s “adultery” is covenant-breaking idolatry. The prophet’s family life and the nation’s history run in parallel so the people cannot miss the point: what looks like religion (festivals, incense, jewelry at the shrine) is, from Yahweh’s side, marital infidelity.

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  Among idolatrous people, earrings sometimes contained amulets, talismans, or protective charms, though most were just jewelry. They were used that way, especially when their shape, image, or cultic association made them more than just a decoration.

  Among some ancient Middle Eastern people, jewelry in general was thought to protect the wearer. They linked gold and silver with the sun and moon and which they credited with protective power; motifs (eyes, crescents, deities, demons, gorgons) and certain stones added that function. Earrings could carry the same meanings when they used those materials or images.

  Isaiah 3:20 lists lehashim (לַחַשׁ) among women’s ornaments. The word comes from “whisper / charm.” Older English Bible translations often said “earrings”; modern versions usually say “amulets,” “charms” or enchantments. These were small inscribed or magical pieces that could hang from the neck or the ear. Hosea 2:13 likewise ties jewelry to Baal worship.

  Crescent pendants (saharonim, “little moons”) in the Hebrew Bible and in Iron Age finds are widely treated as moon-god amulets; they could hang from the neck or from earrings.

  A Phoenician or Carthaginian gold earring with a glass demonic-mask pendant is described by the Metropolitan Museum as a protective amulet meant to ward off evil.

  Phoenician “basket” pendants—tiny shrine-shaped boxes—were worn as earring drops and are interpreted by archaeologists as both ethnic markers and protective miniatures of a cult shrine.

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  Q & A

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More information

• Answers about rings in the Bible
• Answers about gold in the Bible, its uses, sources and symbolism
• Answers about precious stones in the Bible
• Answers about silver in the Bible
• CLOTHING—About dress in the Bible
• Answers about apparel in the Bible