Hello sir,<\/p>\n
I used your\u00a0commentary on Genesis 24,\u00a0A Wife for Isaac<\/a>.\u00a0 In the fifth paragraph, you state that the nose ring that was given to Rebekah weighed 6 ounces and the two bracelets weighed 120 ounces.\u00a0 Could you tell me where you received this information?\u00a0 As I shared that information with my home group, it was brought to my attention that the weights in the footnotes were a lot smaller.\u00a0 I told my group I would find out the correct weight measurements.<\/p>\n\t “So it was, when the camels had finished drinking, that the man took a golden nose ring weighing half a shekel, and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels of gold<\/em>” (Genesis 24:22).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A\u00a0beka\u00a0<\/em>is half of one shekel. It is a unit of weight. So how much is a shekel? “This is what everyone among those who are numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel is twenty gerahs). The half-shekel shall be an offering to the LORD<\/em>” (Exodus 30:13; also Leviticus 27:25; Numbers 3:47; Ezekiel 45:12). “A gerah, according to Maimonides, weighed sixteen barleycorns” (Adam Clarke’s Commentary). Nice, if we knew how much a typical barley kernel weighs.<\/p>\n The problem we have is that a shekel coin, which weighed one shekel, varied in weight depending on the country of origin. The Hebrew shekel appears to have been 160 grains in the Troy measurement system from the coins that have been found. The Babylonian appears to have been 320 grains and the Phonecian shekel was about 224 grains.<\/p>\n One conversion program<\/a>\u00a0puts a shekel at 0.4 U.S. or British ounce, or 0.3646 Troy ounce. The Troy system is the one most commonly used today for precious metals. It assumes that a shekel was 175 grains. There is another\u00a0table<\/a>\u00a0that also uses the same 175 grains in a shekel conversion.<\/p>\n Based on this, it looks like I misread some table somewhere when I originally wrote the material. The nose ring would have been about 0.2 ounces and the bracelets about 36.5 ounces. I’ll correct the on-line copy. Multiply this by the current cost of gold and you’ll find that it was a very handsome gift.<\/p>\n\t Thank you for the clarification. Your commentary was very helpful.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Hello sir, I used your\u00a0commentary on Genesis 24,\u00a0A Wife for Isaac.\u00a0 In the fifth paragraph, you state that the nose ring that was given to Rebekah weighed 6 ounces and the two bracelets weighed 120 ounces.\u00a0 Could you tell me where you received this information?\u00a0 As I shared that information with my home group,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1274],"class_list":["post-28268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-weights"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19491,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-need-to-talk-to-my-friend-about-her-nose-piercing-before-talking-to-her-about-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":28268,"position":0},"title":"Do I need to talk to my friend about her nose-piercing before talking to her about baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a friend who after recently being in a car accident has decided she wants to learn more about God and the Bible ... in so many words. She said she'd like to come to church with me to see what the churches of Christ are like, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23515,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-was-it-a-sin-for-david-to-count-the-fighting-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":28268,"position":1},"title":"Why was it a sin for David to count the fighting men?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In I Chronicles 21, why was it a sin for David to take a census? Answer: \"When you take a census of the sons of Israel to number them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to the LORD, when you number them, so that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30945,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-was-david-wrong-in-numbering-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":28268,"position":2},"title":"Why was David wrong in numbering Israel?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In II Samuel 24:1-2, it was written that David commanded Joab to take a census of Israel. After the census was taken, in II Samuel 24:10, David knew that he had sinned and God sends a pestilence upon Israel as a consequence. Why did God consider David commanding a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21597,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-a-child-bride-really-married\/","url_meta":{"origin":28268,"position":3},"title":"Is a child bride really married?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Recently I was participating in a discussion with several Christians regarding biblical divorce. One of the group members brought up the marriage of young girls in Third World cultures, such as Afghanistan or Pakistan. From what we have read these girls are sold into marriage by their fathers or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50579,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-the-redemption-laws-only-apply-to-firstborn-sons\/","url_meta":{"origin":28268,"position":4},"title":"Do the redemption laws only apply to firstborn sons?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In your article on\u00a0Jephthah's vow, you used the verses Exodus 13:2, 12-15 that all firstborn children belong to God, and as such Jephthah couldn't redeem her. But I've heard commentaries saying that these verses only talked about males. Is there something I'm missing in this? Thanks in advance and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81000,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-exodus-2228-29-talking-about-child-sacrifice\/","url_meta":{"origin":28268,"position":5},"title":"Is Exodus 22:29 talking about child sacrifice?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Exodus 22:29, is God allowing child sacrifice? I'm sure that's not what's present here, and I'm taking it as them becoming a part of the priesthood. If correct, are there other verses that can cover this idea? Answer: Human communication relies heavily on implications. We don't say everything.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Answer:<\/h2>\n
Response:<\/h2>\n