Bible Strands
Proverbs 11:22
Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The wisdom author addresses Israel’s community within a structured collection contrasting righteous and wicked trajectories. The verse sits between statements about the certainty of divine judgment and the divergent outcomes of human hope.
The words — נֶזֶם (Ne.zem) means ring, and טָעַם (Ta'am) denotes taste or discernment. The phrasing places a precious object into a context that makes it repulsive and functionally void.
The thread — The tension between external appearance and internal worth appears in Proverbs 31:30, which subordinates fleeting beauty to reverence for God. It parallels 1 Peter 3:3, which redirects evaluation from visible adornment to inner character, and mirrors Nahum 3:4, where attractive appearance conceals moral corruption.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to prioritize discernment over aesthetics, treating discretion as the necessary condition for beauty to hold value. It demands a practical assessment of character rather than a reliance on superficial appeal.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.
Cross-references
- 1 Peter 3:3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes,
- Proverbs 31:30 Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
- Nahum 3:4 because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the seductive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft.
- Proverbs 7:10 Then a woman came out to meet him, with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart.
- Proverbs 9:13 The woman named Folly is loud; she is naive and knows nothing.
- 2 Peter 2:22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”
- Genesis 24:47 Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She replied, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.
- Ezekiel 16:15 But because of your fame, you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot. You lavished your favors on everyone who passed by, and your beauty was theirs for the asking.