StrongerBible

nezem

נֶזֶם

HebrewH5141“earring, nose-ring, ...”

Appears 17 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 24:22Gen 24:30Gen 24:47Gen 35:4Exo 32:2Exo 32:3Exo 35:22Jdg 8:24 (2×)Jdg 8:25Jdg 8:26Job 42:11Pro 11:22Pro 25:12Isa 3:21Ezk 16:12Hos 2:13(15)
Word studyResearch-gradeNEH-zemnoun

What nezem means

a small gold ring worn as jewelry, pierced through the nose or the ear

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

A נֶזֶם is a small ring, usually of gold, worn as body jewelry and passed through the flesh. Hebrew does not fix whether it sits on the nose or hangs from the ear; the context decides. When the text says it was placed "on the nose," it is a nose-ring; when "in the ears," it is an earring; and often the text names neither site, leaving the ring simply as a piece of gold.

The same object does several jobs across the Bible. It is a betrothal gift, the ring Abraham's servant gives Rebekah, and the culminating ornament of a bride in the prophets' picture of Jerusalem. It is portable wealth, counted by weight in Gideon's haul and handed to Job to restart his fortunes. And it is raw gold that becomes either the golden calf or the tabernacle, depending on what human hands do with it: the object itself is morally neutral, taking its meaning from its use.

It should not be confused with two neighboring words. The hoop עֲגִיל is an earring proper, which Ezekiel names alongside נֶזֶם to mark a different spot on the face, and the signet טַבַּעַת is a ring worn on the hand for sealing, not one driven through the flesh.

Nuances

1aa gold ring worn through the nose
Gen 24:22Gen 24:30Gen 24:47Pro 11:22Isa 3:21Ezk 16:12Hos 2:13(15)
1ba gold ring hung from the ear
Gen 35:4Exo 32:2Exo 32:3Pro 25:12
Gen 35:4

What the rings buried with the foreign gods at Shechem were, and whose ears they came from.

  • majorityAmulets bearing pagan symbols, discarded together with the idols because they carried cultic power.; Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (JPS Torah Commentary, 1989), 240; Claus Westermann, Genesis 12-36 (Fortress, 1985), 551; Othmar Keel, "Das Vergraben der 'fremden Götter' in Genesis xxxv 4b," Vetus Testamentum 23 (1973): 305-336
  • minorityOrdinary earrings removed from the ears of the idol-figurines themselves, re-reading whose ears the text means.; Victor Avigdor Hurowitz, "Who Lost an Earring? Genesis 35:4 Reconsidered," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 62/1 (2000): 28-32
  • minorityPlunder from the sack of Shechem, requiring ritual disposal like other captured spoil.; Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 16-50 (WBC 2, 1994), 324
1ca gold ring whose wearing-site the text leaves unstated, often handled simply as valuable gold
Exo 35:22Jdg 8:24 (2×)Jdg 8:25Jdg 8:26Job 42:11

What scholars say about nezem

The classic lexicons split the word by wearing-site: BDB and Gesenius give two senses, "nose-ring" and "earring," treating the location as inherent, while Gesenius honestly concedes that in several verses (Judg 8:24-25; Job 42:11; Prov 25:12) the type is undefined. HALOT, Clines (DCH), and Coppes (TWOT) treat the site as contextual rather than lexical, glossing "ring, nose-ring, earring," a position pressed by Kirsty Platt (Biblical Interpretation 31, 2023), who argues the LXX's near-uniform rendering ἐνώτιον ("ear-piece"), which forced the awkward "ἐνώτιον on your nostril" at Ezek 16:12, reflects later cultural bias that also produced the KJV's habitual "earring." Ezekiel 16:12, where נֶזֶם on the nose is paired against עֲגִיל on the ears, is treated by Greenberg and Zimmerli as decisive that the two are distinguished lexically only when the writer wants them to be. On etymology, Klein and the eighteenth-edition Gesenius derive the word from a Proto-Semitic root seen in Arabic naẓama ("to string, thread beads in order"), with nominal cognates in Syriac nezmā and Jewish Aramaic nizmā; the object is thus "a thing on a thread," which explains the lexical indifference to nose versus ear. The older link to a root "to muzzle" (Arabic ḫazama) is rejected as folk etymology on phonological grounds. Genesis 35:4 is the sharpest crux: Sarna, Westermann, von Rad, Cassuto, and Keel read the buried rings as amulets, Hurowitz (CBQ 2000, citing Negbi's catalogue of pierced-eared figurines) rereads them as earrings stripped from the idols, and Wenham as plunder from Shechem. Sharon notes that the phrase "gold rings" (נִזְמֵי הַזָּהָב) ties Exodus 32 to Judges 8, framing Gideon's ephod as a deliberate echo of the golden calf. Golani's archaeology of Iron Age Levantine jewelry shows plain gold hoops circulating as currency by weight, supporting the reading of Job 42:11 and Judges 8:26 as portable wealth.

Where scholars disagree about nezem

Whether נֶזֶם carries a fixed piercing-site in its meaning or names one object whose site is decided only by context.

  • majorityThe word names a single ornament, a gold ring worn through the nose or ear, with the site supplied by context and by accompanying phrases, not by the word itself.; Koehler and Baumgartner, HALOT, vol. II, 684; David J. A. Clines, ed., Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. V, 650; Leonard J. Coppes, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (1980), §1338a; Kirsty Platt, "The נזם and Navigating Power Structures," Biblical Interpretation 31/1 (2023)
  • minorityThe word carries two distinct senses fixed by site, nose-ring and earring, listed as separate lexical entries.; Brown, Driver, and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), 633; W. Gesenius, Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, s.v. נֶזֶם
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • Brown, Driver, and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), 633, s.v. נֶזֶםlexicon
  • Koehler and Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, vol. II, 684lexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. V, 650lexicon
  • Leonard J. Coppes, "נֶזֶם," Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (1980), §1338atheological-dictionary
  • Kirsty Platt, "The נזם and Navigating Power Structures," Biblical Interpretation 31/1 (2023)article
  • Ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language (1987), s.v. נֶזֶםdictionary
  • Moshe Greenberg, Ezekiel 1-20 (Anchor Bible 22, 1983), 278-279commentary
  • Walther Zimmerli, Ezekiel 1 (Hermeneia, 1979), 340-342commentary
  • Diane M. Sharon, "Echoes of Gideon's Ephod: An Intertextual Reading," Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society 30 (2010)article
  • Amir Golani, Jewelry from the Iron Age II Levant (OBO SA 34, 2013)monograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of נֶזֶם

m s construct

נֶזֶם

Gen 24:22, Jdg 8:24, Jdg 8:25, Job 42:11, Pro 11:22, Pro 25:12

m p construct

נִזְמֵי

Exo 32:2, Exo 32:3, Jdg 8:24, Jdg 8:26, Isa 3:21

m s absolute

נֶזֶם, נֶּזֶם

Exo 35:22, Ezk 16:12, Gen 24:30, Gen 24:47

m p absolute

נְּזָמִים

Gen 35:4

m s construct

נִזְמָהּ

Hos 2:13