Ring (Hastings' Dictionary)

The rings of the tabernacle and its furniture are spoken of as having been cast (Ex 25'-"'), and this sense of moulding appears in the cognate Arabic taba'a ' to print,' mutba'ah ' printing press.' Rings are referred to in connexion with the boards for tlie corners of tlie tabernacle (Ex 26^) ; there are also rings through which bars pa.ss to keep in position the upright boards for the sides of the tabernacle (v.")

Similarly, rings were attached to the ark of the covenant ('25'"), to the brazen altar ('27''"'), to the altar of incense (30), and were used for fastening on the high priest's breastplate (28^). In Est 1" and Ca 5' ^'^y is translated ' rini;' in AV and RV, but a preferable rendering would be 'cylinder' or 'rod.' The 'rings' (d';;) of Ezk 1" are felloes (so RVm ; cf. 1 K 7**).

In RV the more 286 RING KIVER genernl term 'ring' is used instead of 'ear-ring' (en : see Ear-Rixg) in Gn 24, 35^ Job 42", Ex 32-'. In Ezk 16'-, where KV gives 'ring* for 'jewel' of AV, the allusion niaj' be, not to a ring in the nose, but to the custom still prevailing among the Bedawin, in the case of a favourite child, of fastening an ornamental ring, jewel, or bead to a lock of hair over the brow and allowing it to dangle down as a protective charm nearly as far as the ejes.

The ear-ring as worn by the Bedawin is about an inch and a half in diameter, and opens witli a hinge like a bracelet, so that when closed it clasps the outer ear. The hasty removal of such oi-naments is translated ' break off (piB) in Ex 32-. The ring (tabbdath) appears as an ornament in Is 3-', and as a gift for sacred purposes in Ex 35, , Nu 31™ (both P). Signet-ring.

— In closest connexion with the general meaning of 'ring' is the special sense of signet-ring: Gn 4I«, Est S'"- " 8, n- ", in which tabbdath is the equivalent of cnin hotham in Gn 38's (in v.» n-nin), Ex 28"- ^^-^ 39«- '"•', Jer 22', Hag 2-^, Job 38" 41', Ca S"; Npiy 'hka in Dn 6" ; HaKTvXio^ in Lk 15^, and atppayi^ in Ko 4", 1 Co 9', Avoc, passim, etc. See art. Signet. Both in biblical usage and in modern custom there are sever.

al important meanings connected with the emploj-ment of signet-rings. 1. Irrevocable tesiimoni/, Jer 32", Ro 4", 1 Co 9-. — Where the art of writing is limited to the edu- cated few, as is the case still in the East, the difficulty of affixing the signature is got over bj- the use of a seal.

In front of every Turkish police- court men sit with paper and ink ready to write out a statement of evidence or form of appeal, and one or two men are usually to be met with who have seals for sale and are expert in cutting monograms for brass seals.

When a village is divided into two parties, as in the case of a dispute about a right of waj' through private property, it is customary to present to the local magistrate two papers covered with the seals of those who thus witness for and against the road. 2. Delegated authority. — Thus Pharaoh took off his ring and put it upon Joseph (Gn 41«), and Ahasuerus gave his ring to Haman (Est 3'"). Hence the Kgurative description of Zerubbabel as a signet of the Lord (Hag 2^). Thus in an Oriental cu.

stom- house a junior clerk borrows the seal of a bus5' higher official, and an indolently obliging censor leaves in the mission press his seal which gives to books the right of circulation in the empire. 3. Cumplelion. — From its being affixed to the end of a document as a testimony to the truth of what is stated, the act of ai>plying the seal gave a sense of finality to what was thus sealed (Dn 4. /nCTo/rtii/«<y(Jobl4",Eph4«>,Rev5').— Asense of sanctity was coimected with anything sealed.

The veneration felt towards anything guarded by a seal was illi.''i.iated some years ago at Sidon. A coasting vessel had gone on the rocks near that town, and a few days afterwards there was washed ashore a small hag of gold coins, which the c.^pt.

^in had received from a British merchant in Beyrout, with instructions to deliver it over to another merchant in Jaffa The l)ag was found on the Sidon bea<-h by a Syrian peasant ; and though such a trcisure, washed up at his fee"t from the sea,' might in itself have licen regarded a-s sent from God to him, he shrunk from breaking tlie seal. He walked the intervening distance of twenty miles io order to deliver the money to it« owner in Beyrout.

Arabic tales abound in accounts of things kept secret and wonders wrought by seals of power, the most celebrated being the wishing seal of king Solomon. In the Book of Job there occur several beautiful figurative applications of the signet, such as the sealing uti of the stars (9') as of something folded away and laid tmt of sight, the .

sealing of instruc- tion ill night visions (33'") like the imprinting of a mould upon clay, and the sealing up of man's hand (37') as expressing the limitation of human power. See al.so art. Skal, Sealing. G. M. Mackie. RINGSTRAKED So the adj. tri'dkod is tr^ in all its occurrences, Gn 30^^- ''■ "Sis- «• ">• '=. The root verb ii;v is found once, Gn 22' ' Abraham . . bound Isaac his son,' .so tiiat the primary idea is 'banded' or 'striped.' The adj. is u>ed of striped cattle, goats, or sheep.

The LXX tr. Sid\tvKot except in SI"- \etw6s, and it is followed generally by the Vulg. {albus) and most English versions ' white ' ; but Tind. has ' straked ' in 31, and then the Bishops' Bible gives ' ringstraked' throughout. The word does not seem to occur in Eng. literature el.sewhere. See Steake. J. Hastings.