Probably a weight ; used as a commercial standard
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H8255 names the shekel, originally a unit of weight used for silver, gold, food, materials, valuations, tribute, and other measured obligations. Its value depends on an accepted standard rather than on the word functioning as a modern coin label.
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Full entry for שֶׁקֶל (H8255) · Open the biblical lexicon
H8255 names the shekel, originally a unit of weight used for silver, gold, food, materials, valuations, tribute, and other measured obligations. Its value depends on an accepted standard rather than on the word functioning as a modern coin label.
The BSB source-word alignment has 88 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include shekels (47), shekel (28), [sold] for a shekel (2), The shekel (2), will sell for a shekel (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 23:15. Its strongest book concentrations include Numbers (33), Exodus (14), Leviticus (14), 2 Kings (7).
H8255 names the shekel, originally a unit of weight used for silver, gold, food, materials, valuations, tribute, and other measured obligations. Its value depends on an accepted standard rather than on the word functioning as a modern coin label. In Gen. 23. 16, Abraham weighs four hundred shekels of silver according to the merchants' standard in a witnessed land purchase.
In Exod. 30. 15, rich and poor each give the same half shekel in the census offering, preventing wealth from buying a different valuation of life. In Amos. 8. 5, merchants enlarge the shekel and shrink the grain measure to cheat buyers. H8255 opens teaching on transparent exchange, equal dignity, and honest commerce. It does not supply a stable modern currency conversion, price human worth, or authorize religious fees that exploit the poor.
H8255 appears in commercial payments, sanctuary standards, tribute, military equipment weights, vows, reparations, food rationing, land purchases, and prophetic indictments of dishonest markets. The measured substance and local standard must be identified.
Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the standard of the merchants.
Abraham weighs the agreed silver according to the merchants' standard before witnesses to secure a burial property.
In making the offering to the Lord to atone for your lives, the rich shall not give more than a half shekel, nor shall the poor give less.
Rich and poor contribute the same half shekel in the census offering for atonement, with neither adjusted by economic status.
Asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales.
Eager merchants plan to shrink the ephah, enlarge the shekel, and use dishonest scales to exploit customers after worship days.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. A weight-based unit that functioned as the standard for commerce and covenant obligation payments in ancient Israel.
A weight-based unit that functioned as the standard for commerce and covenant obligation payments in ancient Israel.
probably a weight; used as a commercial standard BDB: a weight Usage: shekel.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
שֶׁקֶל is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H8255 makes measurement a matter of covenant truthfulness. Abraham's purchase uses weighed silver, stated terms, and public witnesses, giving concrete form to an honorable transaction. Exodus applies a shared sanctuary standard to rich and poor in a census offering, refusing the notion that wealth purchases a more valuable life before God. Amos reveals the opposite practice: traders keep religious days outwardly but wait to manipulate both the commodity measure and the silver weight.
Their scales turn technical control into theft from the poor. The shekel is therefore neither sacred money nor an ancient curiosity. It shows how standards can make exchange trustworthy or can conceal exploitation. Faithful application values transparent pricing, accurate measurement, fair wages, and records that protect every party. It also refuses to convert ancient shekel amounts into simplistic spiritual fees or modern prophetic prices.
The biblical unit serves the passage's economy, law, and worship; justice requires attention to those concrete relationships.
Amos.8.5
H8255 is a Hebrew noun for a standard weight, often used with a material such as silver or gold. References to merchant, royal, or sanctuary standards show that ancient shekels were measured units whose precise modern value cannot be assumed from the noun alone.
New Testament money and market texts continue Scripture's concern for truthful stewardship, freedom from partiality, care for the poor, and judgment on hoarded or fraudulently acquired wealth. They do not erase the historical difference between weight-based shekels and later coins.