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.

Leviticus 27:25

Gerah (1/20 shekel): about 1/50 ounce (about 0.6 gram)

See also

Exodus 30:13
Numbers 3:47; 18:16
Ezekiel 45:12
2 Chronicles 9:15-16

Beka (10 gerahs): about 1/5 ounce (about 5.8 grams)

See also

Genesis 24:22

pp 1Ki 10:16-17

Exodus 38:25-26
1 Samuel 13:21

Pim (2/3 shekel): about 1/4 ounce (about 7.7 grams)

The Hebrew word translated "two thirds of a shekel" is "pim", its only mention in Scripture.

Ezekiel 45:12

Shekel (2 bekas): about 2/5 ounce (about 11.5 grams)

The shekel in relation to other weights

1 Samuel 17:5

See also

The shekel as a weight of metal objects

1 Samuel 17:7
2 Samuel 21:16
Ezekiel 4:10

The shekel as a weight of food

2 Chronicles 3:9

See also

The shekel as a weight of gold or silver objects

Genesis 24:22
Numbers 7:13-14
Judges 8:26
Genesis 23:14-16

The shekel as a weight of gold or silver

See also

Genesis 37:28

The phrase "the weight current among the merchants" reflects the local variation in standards.

Deuteronomy 22:28-29
Joshua 7:20-21
Judges 17:1-4
2 Samuel 18:11-12
1 Kings 10:29
2 Kings 5:4-5
Nehemiah 5:15

pp 2Ch 1:17

Jeremiah 32:9
Daniel 5:25-27
2 Samuel 14:26

"Tekel" can mean "weighed" or "shekel".

The royal shekel

Numbers 18:15-16

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.

The sanctuary shekel

See also

Exodus 30:13-15,22-25; 38:24-26

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.

Leviticus 5:15; 27:1-7
Numbers 3:46-50
Ezekiel 45:12

Mina (50 shekels): about 1 1/4 pounds (about 0.6 kilogram)

See also

1 Kings 10:17

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.

Ezra 2:69
Nehemiah 7:71-72
Daniel 5:25-26
Luke 19:11-27

"Mene" can mean both "numbered" and "mina"

By NT times the mina had become coinage rather than simply a weight of silver, and was worth about three months' wages.

1 Chronicles 29:7

Talent (3,000 shekels, 60 minas): about 75 pounds (about 34 kilograms)

See also

Exodus 25:39
2 Samuel 12:30
1 Kings 10:14

pp 1Ch 20:2

1 Kings 16:24
2 Kings 18:14

pp 2Ch 9:13

Ezra 8:26
Esther 3:9
Matthew 18:24-25
Matthew 25:14-30

By NT times the talent had become coinage, and ten thousand talents would have been the equivalent of millions of pounds sterling

Genesis 33:19

Other minor weights

Kesitah

The price in the original Hebrew is "one hundred kesitahs", a unit of unknown weight and value.

John 12:3; 19:39

Litra

The word translated "pint" in Jn 12:3 and "pound" in 19:39 is "litra", a loanword from the Latin "libra", meaning "pound" and weighing 12 ounces (327 grams):

Daniel 5:28

Peres

See also

"Peres" means "division" and denotes a half-shekel.

4306 minerals
5261 commander
5412 money