Weights

WEIGHTS. At the Beginning of this Dictionary we have exhibited a general Table of the Weights and Measures of the ancient Hebrews. We shall only observe here, that as the Hebrews had not the use of coined Money, which was of a certain determined Weight, they weigh’d all the Gold and Silver they used in Trade. The general Word they used to denote a Deut. xxv. 13, 15.Weight was a Stone: Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights; the Hebrew says, a Stone and a Stone. That is to say, they were forbid to keep two different Weights, one too heavy, to buy with, and another too light, to sell with; but only one stone of perfection Prov. xx. 10, 13.and justice, or one true Weight. Divers weights and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the Lord. God condemns Fraud and Injustice in Traffick. The Shekel, the Half Shekel, the Talent, are not only Denominations of Money, of a certain Value of Gold and Silver, but also of a certain Weight. When Moses expresses the Drugs which were to compose the Perfume to be burnt upon the Golden Altar, he says, for example, that they were to take the Weight of five hundred Exod. xxx. 24. 2 Sam. xiv. 26.Shekels of Myrrh, &c. In the Books of Samuel it is said of Absalom’s Hair, that it weighed two hundred Shekels. The same may be observed of the Word Talent, in Hebrew, Kikkar; ‘tis used to express any very considerable Weight.

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