WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. This is a subject on which our knowledge is by no means complete and satisfactory. The notices respecting it which the Bible supplies are fragmentary and scattered ; and though the Jewish authorities and Josephus afford us useful aids, and though the topic has received full and very careful investiga tion, still difficulties remain, and there are points on which we must be content either with probable conjecture, or an approximation to the truth.
So long, indeed, as the subject was insulated from its natural connections, and Hebrew weights and measures were studied apart from those of other ancient nations, the difficulty and uncertainty might well be considerable. Of late, however, a juster method of treatment has been originated in Germany. The Roman measures came from Greece, the Grecian from Phcenicia, the Phcenician from Babylon. Accordingly each system will throw light on the other, and all may be made to contribute something to the elucidation of the IIebrew weights and measures. This method of viewing the subject, and the satisfactory lessons which have been hence deduced, are to be ascribed to Bockh (Metrologischen Untersuchun,gen, Berlin 1838), who, availing himself of the results ascer tained by English, French, and German scholars, and of the peculiar facilities afforded by a residence in the midst of the profound and varied erudition of the Prussian capital, has succeeded, by the ap. plication of his unwearied industry and superior endowments, in showing that the system of weights and measures of Babylon, Egypt, Palestine, Phce nicia, Greece, Sicily, and Italy, formed one great whole, with the most intimate relationships and connections. Our limited space permits only a very brief notice of the results which the inquiries of Bockb and his school seem to have ascertained. We will first advert to the names of the Hebrew weights or coins. 1. 1Z7 is derived from a root signifying round,' so that the word denotes a cir cular-shaped mass of metal. Thus, etymologically, it may be rendered the circle.' In 2 Kings v. 22
it is translated talent ;' the more exact determina tion of its import is fixed by the addition of another noun, as talent of silver' (2 Kings v. 22, 23), and talent of gold' (1 Kings ix. 14). 2. run is a word of Shemitic origin, the Greek p.va. It occurs in the Coptic N. T. in the forms anma and emna. In Kings (x. 17) it is rendered pound.' 3.
weight in the abstract, the usual weight among not only the Hebrews, but the Persians also —o-hcXos. It varies in its import, and is renderer' shekel by our translators, who have thus merely preserved the original word. 4. rp1, a bekak' (Exod. xxxviii. 26), is from a root which signifies 'to divide ; ' hence a moiety or half, half a shekel' (Gen. xxiv. 22). The word in this application is found only in the Pentateuch. 5. properly a grain, or, in particular, the bean, or St. John's bread, carob ; hence, the smallest weight. The word is retained in the English translation ; thus in Exod. xxx. 13, a shekel is twenty gerahs.' It is obvious that no determinate and satisfactory unit in a system of weights can be gained from a change able object like a grain. This difficulty, however, is not peculiar to the Hebrews. We have our grains, and the Greeks had their oboli.
In order to determine the relations which the 1.3M, talent, bore to the smaller weights and coins, we may have recourse to those passages which speak_of the formation of the sanctuary. Accord ing to Exod. xxx. 13, every Israelite above twenty years of age had to pay the poll-tax of half a shekel as a contribution to the sanctuary. Exocl. xxxviii. 26 tells us that this tax had to be paid by 6o3,55o men. The sum amounted to Poo talents and 1775 sacred shekels (Exod. xxxviii. 25), which are equal to 6o3,550 half, or 3o1,775 sacred shekels. Ac cordingly the talent contained 3000 sacred shekels ; for by deducting from 304775 shekels 1, 775 shekels we get 3oo,000 shekels to be divided among ioo talents, making each talent equal to 30o0 sacred shekels.