V, 5, 23). By the laws of Moses, the value of laborers and cattle (Lev. xxvii, 3 sq.; Numb, iii, 45 sq.), houses and fields (Lev. xxvii, 14 sq.), provisions (Deut. ii, 6, 28 ; xiv, 26), and all fines for offences (Exod. xxi, xxii), were determined b\' an estimate in money. The contri- butions to the Temple (Exod. xxx, 13 ; xxxviii, 26), the sacrifice of animals (Lev. v, 15), the redemption of the first-born (Numb, iii, 45 sq. ; xviii, 15 sq.), the pay- ment to the seer (1 Sam. ix, 7 sq.) — in all these cases the payment is always represented as silver. It seems probable from many passages in the Bible that a sys- tem of jewel currency or ring-money was also adopted as a medium of exchange. The case of Kebekah, to whom the servant of Abraham gave "a golden ear-ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels' weight of gold" (Gen. xxiv, 22), proves that the ancients made their jewels of a specific weight, so as to know the value of the ornaments in employing them as money. That the Egyptians kept their bull- ion in jewels seems evident from the plate given by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, copied from the catacombs, ^vhere they are represented as weighing rings of sih-er and gold ; and is further corroborated by the fact of tlie Israelites having, at their exodus from Egypt, borrowed "jewels of silver and jewels of gold," and "spoiled the Egyp- tians" (Exod. xii, 35, 36). According to the ancient drawings, the Egyptian ring-money was composed of perfect rings. So, too, it would appear that the money used by the children of Jacob, when they went to pur- chase corn in Egypt, was also an annular currency (Gen. xlii, 35). Their money is described as "bundles of money" (Sept. StajJioi), and when returned to them, was found to be "of [full] weight" (Gen. xliii, 21). The account of the sale of Joseph by his brethren affords another instance of the employment of jewel ornaments as a medium of exchange (Gen. xxxvii, 28) ; and that the Midianites carried the whole of their bullion wealth in the form of rings and jewels seems more than proba- ble from the account in Numbers of the spoiling of the Midianites — "We have therefore brought an oblation for the Lord what every man hath gotten (Heh. found), of jewels of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, ear-rings, and tablets, to make an atonement for our souls before the Lord. And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of them, even all wrought jewels" (xxxi, 50, 51). The friends of Job, when visiting him at the end of the time of his trial, each gave him a piece of money (niS^bp) and an ear-ring of gold (3lnt CtS; Sept. re- TpdSpaxfiov xpvaov Kai aff>)nov), thus suggesting the employment of a ring-currency. (For this question, see W. B. Dickinson in the Nujn. Ckron. vols, vi to xvi, pas- sini). A passage in Isaiah has indeed been supposed to show the use of gold coins in that prophet's time : speaking of the makers of idols, he says, " They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance" (xlvi, 6). The mention of a bag is, however, a very insufficient reason for the supposition that the gold was coined money. Kings of gold may have been used for money in Palestine as early as this time, since they had long previously been so used in Egypt ; but the passage probably refers to the people of Babylon, who may have had uncoined money in both metals like the Egyptians. Supposing that the above-quoted passages relative to a gold medium of exchange be not admitted, there is a passage recording a purchase made in gold in the time of David. The threshing-floor of Oman was bought by David for 600 shekels of gold by weight (1 Chron. xxi, 25). Yet even this is rendered doubtful by the parallel passage mentioning the price paid as 50 shekels of silver (2 Sam. xxiv, 24).
It seems then apparent, from the several authorities given above, that from the earliest time silrer was used b}' the Hebrews as a medium of commerce, and that a fixed weight was assigned to single pieces, so as to make them suitable for the various articles presented in trade. Unless we suppose this to be the case, many of the
above-quoted passages (especially Gen. xxiii, 16 ; comp. 2 Kings xii, 4 sq.) would be difficult to understand rightly. In this latter passage it is said that the priest Jehoiada " took a chest and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar," and "the priests that kept the door put in all the money that was brought into the house of the Lord." These passages not onlj' presuppose pieces of metal of a definite weight, but also that they had been recognised as such, either in aii un- wrought form or from certain characters inscribed upon them. The system of weighing (though the Bible makes mention of a balance and weight of money in many places— Gen. xxiii, 16; Exod. xxii, 17; 2 Sam. xviii, 12 ; 1 Kings xx, 39 ; Jer. xxxii, 9, 10) is not likely to have been applied to every individual piece. In the large total of 603,550 half-shekels (Exod. xxxviii, 26\ accumulated by the contribution of each Israelite, each itulividual half-shelcel could hardly have been weighed out, nor is it probable that the scales were continually emploj^ed for all the small silver pieces which men car- ried about with them. For instance, that there were divisions of the standard of calculation is evident from the passage in Exod. xxx, 13, where the half-shelcel is to be paid as the atonement monej', and " the rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give lesi' (ver. 15). The. fourth part of the shekel must also have been an actual piece, for it was all the silver that the servant of Saul had at hand to pay the seer (1 Sam. ix, 8, 9). If a quantity of pieces of various weights were carried about by men in a purse or bag, as was the custom (2 Kings V, 23; xii, 10; Gen. xlii, 35), without having their weight marked in some manner upon them, what endless trouble there must have been in buying or sell- ing, in paying or receiving. From these facts we may safely assume that the Israelites had already, before the exile, known silver pieces of a definite weight, and used them in trade. By this is not meant coins, for these are pieces of metal struck under an authority. A curious passage is that in Ezekiel (xvi, 36), which has been supposed to speak of brass money. The Hebrew text has T^ri'i^na ~S"^"f7 "i?!'; which has been rendered by the Vulg. " quia effusum est ses tuum," and by the A. Y. "because thy Jillhiness was poured out." As brass was the latest metal introduced for money into Greece, it seems very unlikely that we shoulil have brass money current at this period in Palestine: it has, however, been supposed that there was an independent copper coinage in farther Asia before the introduction of silver money by the Seleucidte and the Greek kings of Bactri- ana. The terms ClOD i^n (Psa. Ixviii, 30) and rTni:!* J]t33 (1 Sam. ii, 36) are merely expressive of any small denomination of money. See Silver.