“231. Ornaments” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Judges 8:21. The ornaments that were on their camels’ necks.
Saharonim, here translated ornaments, is in Isaiah 3:18, rendered “round tires like the moon.” In Judges 8:26 it is said that there were chains about the camels’ necks. It thus appears that these camels had gold chains around their necks on which were the saharonim, or little moons, probably gold ornaments shaped like a moon either full or crescent. “Perhaps they were made in honor of the moon-faced Astarte, and intimated that they who bore them were placed under her protection. The taking away of these ornaments would thus be a removal of idolatrous objects” (Wordsworth). The Arabs of the present day are accustomed to hang ornaments around the necks of their camels. Some are shaped like crescents, and are made of cowrie shells sewed on a band of leather or cloth.
“486. Sundry Articles, Useful and Ornamental” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Isaiah 3:20. The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the ear-rings.
1. The “bonnets” of the Oriental women, it is hardly necessary to say, bear no resemblance to the articles known by that name among us. They resemble the turbaned head-dresses of the men, but are less bulky and of finer materials. A cap is put on the head around which are wound rich handkerchiefs or shawls, folded high and flat. Gold and silver ornaments and jewels are added according to the taste of the wearer. The original word peer conveys the idea of ornament, and is rendered beauty” in Isaiah 61:3; “ornaments” in Isaiah 61:10 and “tire” in Ezekiel 24:17,23. Saalschutz supposes the peer to have been a metallic crown of filigree work, fastened around the cap.
2. “The ornaments of the legs” (tseadoth) were probably step-chains, that is, “short chains which Oriental females wore attached to the ankle-band of each foot, so as to compel them to take short and mincing steps, to walk mincingly” (Gesenius).
3. Kishshurim, “headband,” are supposed by some critics to denote fillets for the hair. Others, however, interpret them to mean girdles. The same word is rendered “attire” in Jeremiah 2:32.
4. Battey-hannephesh, “tablets,” is literally “houses of breath.” The margin has, “houses of the soul.” There is thought by some to be a reference here to boxes or bottles which were filled with perfume, and fastened to the necklace or the girdle. Chardin mentions having seen the women in Persia with small golden boxes of filigree work, which were filled with a black mixture of musk and amber.
Roberts, however, disputes this interpretation, and thinks these “houses of the soul” find their counterpart in certain ornaments which are worn by Hindu women, and made of silver or gold, and richly adorned with precious stones. He says: “The dancing-girls, the wives of the pandarams, and many other women, wear an ornament resembling a house, and sometimes a temple, which contains an image corresponding with the φαλλος of tile Greeks and the Priapus of the Romans” (Oriental Illustrations, p. 388).
5. Lechashim, “ear-rings,” are thought to have been charms or amulets made of gold, silver, or precious stones, perhaps in the shape of serpents, or with serpents engraved on them. They may have been used as ear-rings also. See note on Genesis 35:4 (#66).