Genesis 35:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

All the strange gods—and all their ear-rings, &c.— St. Austin is of opinion, that the ear-rings mean the jewels which were in the ears of the idols. See Calmet. The word rendered ear-rings, signifies jewels in general: and hence it is plain, that if they belonged to the women, they had been consecrated to superstitious purposes; they had possibly been worn as a kind of amulet or charm: and indeed it appears very likely, that rings, whether on the ear, or nose, were first worn religiously, or rather superstitiously, in honour of false gods, and probably of the sun, whose circular course they might be designed to represent. Maimonides mentions rings and vessels of this idolatrous kind marked with the image of the sun, moon, &c. Jacob hid, or buried these objects of superstition in a place only known to himself, and thus, according to the LXX, destroyed them. See Exodus 32:20. 2 Kings 18:4. See Calmet's Dictionary under the word Rings.