I. MEASURES OF WEIGHT. Gold and sil ver were used by the Hebrews as standards of value which were indicated by weights. The Jew ish rabbis estimated weights according to the number of grains of barley, taken from the mid dle of the ear, to which they were equivalent. The weights used by the Israelites were as follows: (1) Talent (Heb. kik-kawr', circle; Gr.
rdXavrov, a balance), the name given to this weight, perhaps, from its having been taken as "a round number" or sum total. It was the largest weight among the Hebrews, being used for metals, whether gold (t Kings ix :14; x :to, etc.), silver (2 Kings v :22), lead (Zeeh. v:7), bronze (Exod. xxxviii :29), or iron (t Chron. xxix :7). The talent was used by various nations and dif fered considerably.
The Hebrew system had two talents for the precious metals in the relation of 2 to I. The gold talent, apparently not used elsewhere, con tained too manehs, each of which contained again too shekels, there being thus to,000 of these units, weighing about 132 grains each in the talent.
The silver talent, also known as the iEginetan, contained 3,00o shekels, weighing about 220 grains each. One gold talent appears to have been equal to twenty-four of these. The reason for making the talent of gold twice that of silver was prob ably merely for the sake of distinction.
The gold talent contained too manelts and io, 000 shekels.
The silver talent contained 3,00o shekels, 6,000 bekas and 6o,000 gerahs.
The copper talent probably contained 1,500 shekels.
(2) Shekel (Heb. sheh' kel, weight), equal to twenty (Ezek. xlv:t2), or ten penny weights English. Although in very early times there may have been but one shekel (Gen. xxiii : 15), it appears certain that from the period of the Exodus there were at least two shekels—one used in all ordinary transactions (Exod. xxxviii :29 ; Josh. vii :21 ; 2 Kings vii ; Amos viii :5, etc.) ; the other used in the payment of vows, offerings, and other religious purposes (Exod. xxx :13; Lev. v : 15; Num. iii :47), and called the "shekel of the sanctuary." The theory of Hebrew coinage as propounded by Rev. W. L. Bevan, in Smith's Bib.
Dict., is as follows: Gold. . . Shekel or Dark (foreign) 129 grains. Silver. . Shekel Tao, Half-shekel no.
Copper . Half (-shekel) 264, Quarter (-shekel) 132, (Sixth-shekel) 88.
(3) Maneh (Heb. ;1;7, maw-neh', a portion), the original of the Latin nzoneta and the English word money, occurs in t Kings x:17. Ezra ii :69, vii :71, 72 only; rendered "pound" in Ezek. xlv :12 ; A. V. 'twitch. In this latter passage Eze kiel seems to speak of a maneh of fifty or sixty shekels: "And the shekel (shall be) twenty ge rahs; twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels shall be your maneh" (xlv :12). The ordinary text of the LXX gives a series of small sums as the Hebrew, though differing in the numbers, but the Alexandrian and Vatican MSS. have fifty for fifteen. The meaning would be, either that there were to be three manehs, re spectively containing twenty, twenty-five. and fifteen shekels, or the like, or else that a sum is intended by these numbers (20-1-25+15)=60, or possibly 50. But it must be remembered that this is a prophetical passage.
There were a hundred shekels of gold in a gold maneh.
(4) Bekah (Heb. beh'kah), from a root signifying to divide, a fraction, only mentioned twice (Gen. xxiv :22 ; Exod. xxxviii:26). In the latter passage it is said to equal one half a sacred shekel. It was the weight in silver which was paid for each Israelite numbered (Exod. xxxviii : 26), and was equal to the tribute or didrachm (Matt. xvii :24).
(5) Gerah (Heb. gay-raw', kernel, a bean or grain), the smallest of the Hebrew weights and the equivalent of the twentieth part of the sacred shekel (Exod. xxx:i3; Lev. xxvii :25; Num. iii :47; xviii :16; Ezek. xlv :12).
(6) Dram or Drachm (Heb. ad-ar-kone', Chron. xxix:7; Ezra viii:27; dar-kem-one', Ezra ii:69; Neh. vii:7o, etc.), thought by some to be identical with each other and with the Persian dark. Others conclude from 1 Chron. xxix:7 that the adarkone was less than three tenths of a shekel. (See TABLE OF WEIGHTS; page 42, Appen dix.)