But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, an ancient Greek city, about customs during worship. In this verse, he points to something observable in nature — a woman's long hair — as evidence that there is honor and dignity in a woman being covered. In the culture of that era, a woman's long hair was considered a mark of beauty, femininity, and dignity. Paul uses the striking word "glory" — the same Greek word used elsewhere for God's own radiance — to describe this hair, suggesting it is something genuinely honoring and meaningful. This verse is part of a longer, much-debated passage about head coverings in worship that Christians across centuries and cultures have interpreted in very different ways.
God, thank you for the gifts you've woven into who we are — not as accidents, but as glories. Help us stop hiding what you've given us and start seeing it the way you do: as both beautiful and purposeful. Show us where we've been ashamed of what you designed as a covering. Amen.
What you've been given might be both more beautiful and more protective than you've ever considered. Paul uses a weighty word here — the same one used for God's own radiance — to describe something as ordinary as a woman's hair. The argument is almost playful in its simplicity: look at what nature itself does. There's something fitting and dignified in the covering. Woven through that small observation is a larger truth: the things given to you can be simultaneously your glory and your protection. Beauty and function, honor and shelter — not always opposites. Think about the qualities, the characteristics, the ways of being that are most distinctly yours. The ones you've perhaps treated as minor or even tried to dial back to fit in somewhere. Are you treating them as glories, or have you spent years apologizing for them? What's been entrusted to you might be doing more for you — and for the people around you — than you've been willing to believe. You were not assembled randomly. What you've been given was meant to cover something.
Paul uses the word "glory" — a term used elsewhere in Scripture for God's own radiance — to describe a woman's long hair. Why do you think he chose such a weighty word here, and what does that suggest about how God views the things he gives us?
What gifts or qualities have you been given that you've perhaps dismissed as minor or embarrassing — but that might actually deserve to be called your "glory"?
This verse comes from a passage about head coverings that Christians have interpreted very differently across cultures and centuries. How do you personally decide which biblical instructions are timeless principles and which are tied to a specific cultural moment?
How might recognizing that someone else's distinctiveness — their particular way of being, their gifting — is their "glory" change how you talk about or relate to the people around you?
This week, identify one quality or gift in yourself that you've been undervaluing. How might you steward or express it differently starting now?
but if a woman has long hair, it is her ornament and glory? For her long hair is given to her as a covering.
AMP
but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.
ESV
but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering.
NASB
but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering.
NIV
But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering.
NKJV
And isn’t long hair a woman’s pride and joy? For it has been given to her as a covering.
NLT