SHEKEL

שקל , signifies weight, money, shekel, siclus , a Hebrew weight and money, Exod. xxx, 23, 24; 2 Sam. xiv, 26. Shekel is used to denote the weight of any thing; as iron, hair, spices, . Dr. Arbuthnot makes the weight of the shekel equal to 9 dwt. 24⁄7 gr. English troy weight; and the value equal to 2s. 3⅜d. sterling money: but the golden shekel was worth 1 l. 16 s. 6 d. English money. Some are of opinion that the Jews had two kinds of shekels, namely, the common one already noticed, and the shekel of the sanctuary, which last they make double the former. But most authors make them the same, and think that the word sanctuary is added to expre a just and exact weight, according to the standards kept in the temple or tabernacle. Moses, Num. xviii, 16, and Ezekiel, xlv, 12, say, that the shekel shekel was worth twenty gerahs.