EAR-RINGS. No custom is more ancient or universal than that of wearing ear-rings, from which it would appear to be a very natural idea to attach such an ornament to the pendulous lobe of the ear. There are two words in Hebrew denoting ear-rings, viz., which is applied to any kind of ring, particularly to ear-rings (Num. xxxi. 50 ; Ezek. xvi. 12). The name implies roundness, and it is a fact that nearly all the ancient ear-rings exhibited in the sculptures of Egypt and Persepolis are of a circular shape. The other word is ?T3 nezem, and, as this word is also applied to a nose jewel, we may suppose that it was a kind of ear ring, different from the round agil,' and more similar to the nose-jewel. It most certainly de notes an car-ring in Gen. xxxv. 4, but in Gen. xxiv. 47 ; Prov. xi. 22 ; Is. iii. 21, it signifies a nose jewel, and it is doubtful which of the two is in tended in Judg. viii. 24, 25 ; Job xlii. t 1. Ear rings 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 ear-rings of Jacob's family, which he buried with the strange gods at Bethel (Gen. xxxv. 4).
No conclusion can be formed as to the shape of the Hebrew ear-rings, 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 frequent ly 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 [Amut.ETs]. Silver ear-rings have also been found at Thebes, either plain hoops like the ear-rings of gold, or simple studs. The modern Oriental ear-rings are more usually jewel led drops or pendents 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 half penny) 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 ear-ring, which is denoted by the same word that describes a nose-jewel.
The use of ear-rings appears to have been con fined to the women among the Hebrews. That they were not worn by men is implied in Judg.
viii. 24, where gold ear-rings are mentioned as dis tinctive of the Ishmaelite tribes.* The men of Egypt also abstained from the use of ear-rings ; but how extensively they were worn by men in other nations is shewn by the annexed group of heads of different foreigners, collected from the Egyptian monuments. By this also the usual forms of the most ancient ornaments of this de scription are sufficiently displayed.—J. K.