Dictionary entry

Nose

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

Several expressions in Scripture grew out of the fact that anger often shows itself by distended nostrils, hard breathing, and in animals by snorting, 2Sa 22:9Job 39:20Ps 18:8. Gold rings hung in the cartilage of the nose, or the left nostril, were favorite ornaments of eastern women, Pr 11:22Eze 16:12. Rings were inserted in the noses of animals, to guide and control them; and according to the recently discovered tablets at Nineveh, captives among the Assyrians were sometimes treated in the same way, 2Ki 19:28Eze 38:4. SeeNINEVEH.