Weights
WEIGHTS
The Hebrews weighed all the gold and silver they used in trade. The shekel, the half shekel, the manch, the talent, are not only denominations of money, of certain values in gold and silver, but also of certain weights. The weight “of sanctuary,” or weight of the temple, Exo 30:13,24 ; Lev 5:5 ; Num 3:50 ; 7:19; 18:16, was perhaps the standard weight, preserved in some apartment of the temple, and not a different weight from the common shekel; for though Moses appointed that all things valued by their price in silver should be rated by the weight of the sanctuary, Lev 27:25, he made no difference between this shekel of twenty gerahs and the common shekel. Eze 45:12, speaking of the ordinary weights and measures used in traffic among the Jews, says that the shekel weighed twenty gerahs: it was therefore equal to the weight of the sanctuary.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Weights
Reduced to English troy-weight, the Hebrew weights were: (1.) The gerah (Lev. 27:25; Num. 3:47), a Hebrew word, meaning a grain or kernel, and hence a small weight. It was the twentieth part of a shekel, and equal to 12 grains.
(2.) Bekah (Ex. 38:26), meaning “a half” i.e., “half a shekel,” equal to 5 pennyweight.
(3.) Shekel, “a weight,” only in the Old Testament, and frequently in its original form (Gen. 23:15, 16; Ex. 21:32; 30:13, 15; 38:24-29, etc.). It was equal to 10 pennyweight.
(4.) Ma’neh, “a part” or “portion” (Ezek. 45:12), equal to 60 shekels, i.e., to 2 lbs. 6 oz.
(5.) Talent of silver (2 Kings 5:22), equal to 3,000 shekels, i.e., 125 lbs.
(6.) Talent of gold (Ex. 25:39), double the preceding, i.e., 250 lbs.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
WEIGHTS
It is not possible today to give exact equivalents of the weights and measures referred to in the Bible. It seems that no official system operated throughout Palestine, and weights and measures may have varied from place to place and from era to era.
The important requirement of the Israelite law was that weights and measures be honest (Lev 19:5-36; Deu 25:13-16). This was a requirement that greedy and dishonest merchants ignored. When selling grain they used undersized measures, and when weighing the buyers money they used extra heavy weights (Amo 8:4-5). But God saw their dishonesty and announced his judgment upon them (Pro 11:1; Mic 6:11).
The heaviest weight in use in Israel was the talent, which probably weighed about 50 kilograms (1Ch 29:7; Rev 16:21; see TALENT). A talent was divided into sixty minas (1Ki 10:17), and a mina into fifty shekels. Thus a shekel, which was the basic weight, weighed between sixteen and seventeen grams (Eze 4:10; see SHEKEL). Half a shekel was called a beka (Exo 38:26), and a twentieth of a shekel a gerah (Exo 30:13).
Fuente: Bridgeway Bible Dictionary
Weights
Must be just
Lev 19:35-36; Deu 25:13-15; Pro 11:1; Pro 16:11; Pro 20:10; Pro 20:23; Mic 6:10-11 Measure
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Weights
See Table of Weights and Measures at the end of the volume.