Currencies
Shekel
The shekel is a weight of silver used as money. Abraham pays four hundred shekels for Machpelah, Joseph is sold for twenty shekels, and Exodus 21 sets thirty shekels as the price if an ox gores a slave. The sanctuary shekel is twenty gerah; at a census each Israelite twenty years and over pays half a shekel as ransom.
Category
Currencies
Value
Sanctuary shekel: twenty gerah; census ransom: half a shekel
First mention
Genesis 23:16
Scripture references
- Genesis 23:16
Abraham weighed out for Ephron ... four hundred shekels of silver, according to the current commercial rate.
- Genesis 37:28
They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver, and these men took Joseph to Egypt.
- Genesis 45:22
To each and every one he gave new clothes, and to Benjamin three hundred shekels of silver and five changes of clothes.
- Exodus 21:32
If the ox gores a slave, male or female, its owner will pay the price -- thirty shekels -- to their master, and the ox will be stoned.
- Exodus 30:13
Everyone subject to the census will pay half a shekel, reckoning by the sanctuary shekel: twenty gerah to the shekel. This half-shekel will be set aside for Yahweh.