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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Chain
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Of gold on Joseph's neck (). Was the badge of a judge, and a prime minister, in Egypt. Judges wore the image of Thmei, or truth, attached from their neck (compare ). Daniel was given by Belshazzar a chain of gold about his neck, a token of investiture as "the third ruler in the kingdom" of Babylon (; ). Secondly, chares, besides the necklace, were used for ornament, hanging down to the waist (; ).
"Chains," hanetiphot, from naataph, to drop; pendants about the neck, dropping on the breast. Some had ornamental miniature lunettes attached (), "round tires like the moon," such as the Midianites adorned their camels' necks with (-26; compare ); the chumarah or crescent is still worn in front of the headdress in western Asia; () "tablets" or scentbottles, lit. houses of the breath or soul, were often suspended by chains. "Tinkling ornaments," i.e. step chains attached to ankle rings, shortened the step so as to give a tripping (margin) gait (; ).
Prisoners were chained to one or even two guards, by a chain from each hand, as Peter (-7). Paul's right hand was chained to the soldier's left (). Originally he was bound with two chains (). Joseph's "feet they hurt with fetters, he was laid in (margin his soul, came into) iron," i.e. his soul suffered more pain than even the fetters caused to his body. As the Hebrew verb is feminine, and "the iron" masculine, the Prayer-Book version, "the iron entered into his soul," is wrong ().