Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion.
Parallel translations
- WEB Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout, is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion.
- KJV As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.
- NKJV As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout, So is a lovely woman who lacks discretion.
- NASB As a ring of gold in a pig’s snout So is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion.
- NLT A beautiful woman who lacks discretion is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Beauty without discretion is like a gold ring in a pig's snout. Outward attractiveness is wasted and incongruous when it lacks good sense.
Overview
With a memorable, almost comic image, the proverb teaches that physical beauty divorced from discernment is misplaced and worthless. It warns against prizing appearance over character. The lesson echoes Scripture's consistent call to value the inner adornment of a wise and godly heart above outward show.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- 1 Pet 3:3–4Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes,
- Prov 31:30Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
- Nah 3:4–6because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the seductive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft.
- 2 Pet 2:22Of 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.”
- Prov 9:13The woman named Folly is loud; she is naive and knows nothing.
- Prov 7:10Then a woman came out to meet him, with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart.
- Gen 24:47Then 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.
- Ezek 16:15–22But 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.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 11:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.