Measures & money
Shekel
A unit of metal weight, used in payments of silver and in setting contributions.
Also called · sheqel
What it means
In Genesis 23, Abraham weighs four hundred shekels of silver to Ephron. He obtains the field and cave as a burial place and buries Sarah. The scene describes weighing silver, not counting four hundred minted coins.
Exodus 30 requires those counted in the census, aged twenty and upward, to give half a sanctuary shekel as a ransom for their lives. One shekel is twenty gerahs. The rich must not give more or the poor less; the money supports the Tent of Meeting’s service.
How it appears in the Bible
Leviticus 27 gives amounts for a vow concerning a person according to age and sex. When a person making the vow cannot afford the amount, the priest assesses it according to their means. In Second Samuel 24, David buys the threshing floor and oxen for fifty shekels of silver. In Matthew 17, this edition uses didrachma for the payment and stater for the coin sufficient for Jesus and Peter.
Translation note
Read the difference between weight and a means of payment in each scene. An ancient weight unit does not carry a fixed value in modern money.