'Beauty' in the Bible

You are to make sacred garments [official clothing reserved for holy services] for Aaron your brother, for honor and for beauty (ornamentation).

“For Aaron’s sons you shall make tunics and sashes and [ornamental] caps, for glory and honor and beauty.

Now in all Israel there was no man as handsome as Absalom, so highly praised [for that]; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory and honor due His name;Bring an offering [of thanksgiving], and come before Him;Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.

And he adorned the house with precious stones; and the gold was gold from Parvaim.

to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing her royal crown (high turban), to display her beauty before the people and the officials, for she was lovely to see.

Now when it was each young woman’s turn to go before King Ahasuerus, after the end of her twelve months under the regulations for the women—for the days of their beautification were completed as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with [sweet] spices and perfumes and the beauty preparations for women—

One thing I have asked of the Lord, and that I will seek:That I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life,To gaze upon the beauty [the delightful loveliness and majestic grandeur] of the LordAnd to meditate in His temple.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name;Worship the Lord in the beauty and majesty of His holiness [as the creator and source of holiness].

“With rebukes You discipline man for sin;You consume like a moth what is precious to him;Surely every man is a mere breath [a wisp of smoke, a vapor that vanishes]. Selah.

Then the King will desire your beauty;Because He is your Lord, bow down and honor Him.

Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead);Death will be their shepherd;And the upright shall rule over them in the morning,And their form and beauty shall be for Sheol to consume,So that they have no dwelling [on earth].

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,God has shone forth.

And let the [gracious] favor of the Lord our God be on us;Confirm for us the work of our hands—Yes, confirm the work of our hands.

Splendor and majesty are before Him;Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;Tremble [in submissive wonder] before Him, all the earth.

Your people will offer themselves willingly [to participate in Your battle] in the day of Your power;In the splendor of holiness, from the womb of the dawn,Your young men are to You as the dew.

Let the godly ones exult in glory;Let them sing for joy on their beds.

“She will place on your head a garland of grace;She will present you with a crown of beauty and glory.”

Do not desire (lust after) her beauty in your heart,Nor let her capture you with her eyelashes.

The silver-haired head is a crown of splendor and glory;It is found in the way of righteousness.

The glory of young men is their [physical] strength,And the honor of aged men is their gray head [representing wisdom and experience].

Charm and grace are deceptive, and [superficial] beauty is vain,But a woman who fears the Lord [reverently worshiping, obeying, serving, and trusting Him with awe-filled respect], she shall be praised.

Now it will come to pass that instead of the sweet fragrance of spices there will be [the stench of] rottenness;Instead of a belt, a rope;Instead of well-set hair, baldness;Instead of fine clothes, a robe of sackcloth;And branding [of captives by the scorching heat] instead of beauty.

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,Will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.

Woe (judgment is coming) to [Samaria] the splendid crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,Which is at the head of the rich valleyOf those who are overcome with wine!

And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,Which is at the head of the rich valley,Will be like the early fig before the summer,Which one sees,And as soon as it is in his handHe [greedily] swallows it [and so will the Assyrians rapidly devour Samaria, Israel’s capital].

In that day the Lord of hosts will become a magnificent crownAnd a glorious diadem to the [converted] remnant of His people,

Your eyes will see the King in His beauty;They will see a far-distant land.

The carpenter stretches out a measuring line, he marks out the shape [of the idol] with red chalk; he works it with planes and outlines it with the compass; and he makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of man, that it may sit in a house.

For He [the Servant of God] grew up before Him like a tender shoot (plant),And like a root out of dry ground;He has no stately form or majestic splendorThat we would look at Him,Nor [handsome] appearance that we would be attracted to Him.

“The sun will no longer be your light by day,Nor shall the bright glow of the moon give light to you,But the Lord will be an everlasting light for you;And your God will be your glory and splendor.

To grant to those who mourn in Zion the following:To give them a turban instead of dust [on their heads, a sign of mourning],The oil of joy instead of mourning,The garment [expressive] of praise instead of a disheartened spirit.So they will be called the trees of righteousness [strong and magnificent, distinguished for integrity, justice, and right standing with God],The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

All her beauty and majestyHave departed from the Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem).Her princes have become like deerThat have found no pasture;They have fled without strengthBefore the pursuer.

How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem)With a cloud in His anger!He has cast down from heaven to the earthThe glory and splendor of IsraelAnd has not remembered His footstoolIn the day of His anger.

All who pass along the wayClap their hands in derision at you;They scoff and shake their headsAt the Daughter of Jerusalem, saying,“Is this the city that was called‘The perfection of beauty,The joy of all the earth’?”

As for the beauty of [gold for] ornaments, they turned it to pride and from it made the images of their repulsive things (idols) and of their vile things. Therefore I will make it an unclean thing to them.

I made you (Israel) multiply like plants [which grow] in the field, and you grew up and became tall and you reached the age for [wearing] fine jewelry; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown, yet you were naked and bare.

Then your fame went out among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My majesty and splendor which I bestowed on you,” says the Lord God.

“But you trusted in and relied on your beauty and prostituted yourself [in idolatry and its debauched rituals] because of your fame, and you poured out your immoralities on every [willing] passer-by and your beauty was his [as you worshiped the idols of the Gentile nations].

At the beginning of every street you built your high place and made your beauty repulsive; and you offered your body to every passer-by and multiplied your obscene immorality.

and say to Tyre, who lives at the entrance to the sea, merchant of the peoples to many coastlands, ‘Thus says the Lord God,“O Tyre, you have said, ‘I am perfect in beauty.’

“Your borders are in the heart of the seas;Your builders have perfected your beauty.

“Persia and Lud and Put (Libya) were in your army as your men of war. They hung the shield and the helmet on you; they gave you splendor.

The men of Arvad with your army were upon your walls, all around, and the Gammadim (men of valor) were in your towers. They hung their shields on your walls, all around; they perfected your beauty.

Therefore, behold, I will bring strangers (Babylonians) upon you,The most ruthless and violent of the nations.And they will draw their swordsAgainst the beauty of your wisdom [O Tyre]And defile your splendor.

“Son of man, take up a dirge (funeral poem to be sung) for the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God,“You had the full measure of perfection and the finishing touch [of completeness],Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

“Your heart was proud and arrogant because of your beauty;You destroyed your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.I cast you to the ground;I lay you before kings,That they might look at you.

‘The cedars in the garden of God could not hide or rival it;The cypress trees did not have boughs like it,And the plane trees did not have branches like it.No tree in the garden of God was like it in its beauty.

‘Whom [among them] do you surpass in beauty?Go down and make your bed with the uncircumcised (the barbaric, the boorish, the crude).’

Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to tread out the grain,But I will come over her fair neck with a heavy yoke [for hard field work].I will harness Ephraim;Judah will plow and Jacob will harrow and rake for himself.

His shoots will sprout,And his beauty will be like the olive treeAnd his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.

For how great is God’s goodness and how great is His beauty! And how great [He will make Israel’s] goodliness and [Israel’s] beauty!Grain and new wine will make the young men and virgins flourish.

So I [Zechariah] pastured the flock doomed for slaughter, truly [as the name implies] the most miserable of sheep. And I took two [shepherd’s] staffs, the one I called Favor (Grace) and the other I called Union (Bonds); so I pastured the flock.

I took my staff, Favor, and broke it in pieces, breaking the covenant which I had made with all the peoples.

Does the potter not have the right over the clay, to make from the same lump [of clay] one object for honorable use [something beautiful or distinctive] and another for common use [something ordinary or menial]?

There are also heavenly bodies [sun, moon and stars] and earthly bodies [humans, animals, and plants], but the glory and beauty of the heavenly is one kind, and the glory of the earthly is another.

There is a glory and beauty of the sun, another glory of the moon, and yet another [distinctive] glory of the stars; and one star differs from another in glory and brilliance.

For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; its flower falls off and its beauty fades away; so too will the rich man, in the midst of his pursuits, fade away.

but let it be [the inner beauty of] the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality and unfading charm of a gentle and peaceful spirit, [one that is calm and self-controlled, not overanxious, but serene and spiritually mature] which is very precious in the sight of God.