This saying states that indiscretion is inappropriate for a beautiful woman and compares this unsuitableness to a valuable object being used as an adornment on an unclean animal. The form of the Hebrew saying deserves our attention. It says literally “Ring of gold in snout of pig, woman of beauty but lacking taste.”

In each line there is a repetition of sounds, both consonants and vowels. This has the effect of binding the two halves of each line as well as uniting the two lines into a single unit. Each line consists of two noun phrases. There is a pair of associated items (gold ring and beautiful woman) and a pair of contrasting items (pig’s snout and beautiful woman). Furthermore, the comparison in the Hebrew verse is without any special marker. Revised Standard Version has added “Like” to create a simile.

“Like a gold ring in a swine’s snout”: “Gold rings” were worn as jewelry in women’s noses, not in the snouts of pigs. See Gen 24.47; Isa 3.21; Ezek 16.12. “Swine” is a more general term than “pig,” which is used in all modern English versions. The emotive factor was important in ancient Israel since the pig was considered unclean. In areas where metal rings are placed in the snouts of pigs to control them or to prevent them from rooting, it may be necessary to make clear that the gold ring is to make the pig beautiful. In areas where pigs are unknown a suitable domestic animal may be substituted.

“A beautiful woman without discretion”: In the second line the word rendered “without” is a verb meaning to turn away from or depart. However, that word is nowhere else used in this kind of context. Because it is followed by “discretion”, it is better to interpret as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. “Discretion” is literally “taste,” meaning good taste, but in the context is better taken as good sense or good judgment.

If a language cannot express comparison in the same brief way as the Hebrew, it will be necessary to make some adjustments. For example, in some languages it will be clearer to reverse the order of the two lines so that the item of comparison, the beautiful woman who lacks good sense, is stated before the thing with which she is humorously compared. We may also say, for example,

• A beautiful woman who is stupid is a gold ring in a pig’s snout.
• A silly beautiful woman is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout.
• Beauty is wasted on a foolish woman like a gold ring is wasted on a pig’s snout.
• A gold ring adorns a pig’s snout like stupidity adorns a beautiful woman.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .