KESEPH OM), the Hebrew word for silver, whether in the ore, in bars, or coined. Silver is commonly mentioned along with gold in the Bible, as, next to it, the most precious of metals. It is found native in veins ramifying through various kinds of stone ; hence, perhaps, the allusion in Job xxviii. (cf. Rosenmiiller, /cc.) Silver is generally obtained mixed with dross, and is puri fied by fire, or drawn off by the lead in a crucible; allusions to this are in Ps. xii. 6 ; Prov. xvii. 3 ; xxvii. 21 ; I. 25 ; Ezek. xxii. 22 ; Zech. xiii. 9 ; Mal. iii. 3. The sepamted silver was called rlt:17 pir, refined silver, Chron. xxix. 4 ; Ps. xii. 6 ; PrOv.. x. 2o. Silver was brought to Tyre from Tarshish (Ezek. xxvii. 12), and mention is made of silver beat out into plates (virr.:',:) as imported from the same locality (Jer. x. 9). Assuming that Tarshish was in Spain, this falls in with the notices we have in ancient authors of the abun dance of silver in that country (Heeren, p. 64)• There is no mention of this metal in Scripture until the time of Abraham. Before that time brass and iron appear to have been the only metals in use (Gen. iv. 22). Abraham was rich in gold and silver, as well as in flocks and herds, and silver in his day was in general circulation as money, but it was uncoined, and estimated always by weight. Coined money was not in use among
the Israelites until an advanced period of their history ; indeed, as late as the time of Jeremiah, we find silver weighed in payment of a purchase (Jer. xxxii. 9, ro). The only mention of gold as a medium of exchange is in Chrdn. xxi. 25. The Romans are said to have had only copper money until within five years of the first Punic war, when they began to coin silver (Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 3, 13). Their coins were extensively introduced into Judma after it became a Roman province.
Silver was largely used by the Jews in the manufacture of articles of ornament (comp. Gen. xxiv. 53 ; Prov. xxv. ; Cant. i. ; Zech. vi. II), and of various vessels for domestic purposes, and also for the service of the temple (Gen. xliv. 2 ; Num. vii. 13 ; x. 2 ; Chron. xxviii. r5-17 ; Exod. xx. 23 ; Is. xl. 19 ; Hosea xiii. 2 ; Habak. ii. 19). Many of the idols and other objects be longing to tbe idolatrous nations are stated to have been of silver. This metal was so abundant as to be little thought of in the days of Solomon (r Kings x. 21, 27).—W. L. A.