Ancient weights were usually made of stone or metal, often inscribed with their weight and standard, the shekel being the basic weight of all Semitic nations. Weights of gold and silver served as currency, since coinage was not invented until the seventh century B.C. Weights are given in ascending order, with their approximate imperial and metric equivalents.
Gerah (1/20 shekel): about 1/50 ounce (about 0.6 gram)
Leviticus 27:25 See also Exodus 30:13; Numbers 3:47, Numbers 18:16; Ezekiel 45:12
Every valuation will be according to the sanctuary shekel, twenty gerahs to the shekel.
Beka (10 gerahs): about 1/5 ounce (about 5.8 grams)
2 Chronicles 9:15–16 parallel 1 Kings 10:16–17 See also Genesis 24:22; Exodus 38:25–26
King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of hammered gold went into each shield. He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold; three hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.
Pim (2/3 shekel): about 1/4 ounce (about 7.7 grams)
1 Samuel 13:21 The Hebrew word translated “two thirds of a shekel” is “pim”, its only mention in Scripture.
The charge was a pim for sharpening a plowshare or mattock, a third of a shekel for sharpening a pitchfork or an axe, and a third of a shekel for repointing an oxgoad.
Shekel (2 bekas): about 2/5 ounce (about 11.5 grams)
The shekel in relation to other weights
The shekel will consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels will equal one mina.
The shekel as a weight of metal objects
1 Samuel 17:5 See also 1 Samuel 17:7; 2 Samuel 21:16
and he had a bronze helmet on his head. He wore a bronze coat of mail weighing five thousand shekels,
The shekel as a weight of food
You are to weigh out twenty shekels of food to eat each day, and you are to eat it at set times.
The shekel as a weight of gold or silver objects
2 Chronicles 3:9 See also Genesis 24:22; Numbers 7:13–14; Judges 8:26
The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. He also overlaid the upper rooms with gold.
The shekel as a weight of gold or silver
Genesis 23:14–16 The phrase “the weight current among the merchants” reflects the local variation in standards. See also Genesis 37:28; Deuteronomy 22:28–29; Joshua 7:20–21; Judges 17:1–4; 2 Samuel 18:11–12; 1 Kings 10:29 parallel 2 Chronicles 1:17; 2 Kings 5:4–5; Nehemiah 5:15; Jeremiah 32:9; Daniel 5:25–27 “Tekel” can mean “weighed” or “shekel”.
Ephron answered Abraham, “Listen to me, my lord. The land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, but what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.” Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the standard of the merchants.
The royal shekel
2 Samuel 14:26 The royal shekel, also known in Babylonia, was slightly heavier (at about 13 grams) than the standard shekel and reflects David's attempts to bring some standardisation to this weight.
And when he cut the hair of his head— he shaved it every year because his hair got so heavy— he would weigh it out to be two hundred shekels, according to the royal standard.
The sanctuary shekel
Numbers 18:15–16 The sanctuary shekel was more precisely regulated than the common shekel, weighing exactly 20 gerahs. The common shekel may have weighed slightly less as a result of greater handling and wider circulation. See also Exodus 30:13–15, Exodus 30:22–25, Exodus 38:24–26; Leviticus 5:15, Leviticus 27:1–7; Numbers 3:46–50
The firstborn of every womb, whether man or beast, that is offered to the LORD belongs to you. But you must surely redeem every firstborn son and every firstborn male of unclean animals. You are to pay the redemption price for a month-old male according to your valuation: five shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel, which is twenty gerahs.
Mina (50 shekels): about 1 1/4 pounds (about 0.6 kilogram)
Ezekiel 45:12 Although the mina is valued here at 60 shekels, there is some evidence that in the pre-exilic period it was valued at 50 shekels. See also 1 Kings 10:17; Ezra 2:69; Nehemiah 7:71–72; Daniel 5:25–26 “Mene” can mean both “numbered” and “mina”; Luke 19:11–27 By NT times the mina had become coinage rather than simply a weight of silver, and was worth about three months' wages.
The shekel will consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels will equal one mina.
Talent (3,000 shekels, 60 minas): about 75 pounds (about 34 kilograms)
1 Chronicles 29:7 See also Exodus 25:39; 2 Samuel 12:30 parallel 1 Chronicles 20:2; 1 Kings 10:14 parallel 2 Chronicles 9:13; 1 Kings 16:24; 2 Kings 18:14; Ezra 8:26; Esther 3:9; Matthew 18:24–25 By NT times the talent had become coinage, and ten thousand talents would have been the equivalent of millions of pounds sterling; Matthew 25:14–30
Toward the service of God’s house they gave 5,000 talents and 10,000 darics of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze, and 100,000 talents of iron.
Other minor weights
Kesitah
Genesis 33:19 The price in the original Hebrew is “one hundred kesitahs”, a unit of unknown weight and value.
Litra
The word translated pint'' in John 12:3 andpound'' in 19:39 is litra'', a loanword from the Latinlibra'', meaning ``pound'' and weighing 12 ounces (327 grams): John 12:3, John 19:39
Peres
Daniel 5:28 “Peres” means “division” and denotes a half-shekel.
Related themes
Dictionary of Bible Themes © 1999 Martin Manser, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, via Bible Aquifer. Formatted for this site, with Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible.