Page:Origin of metallic currency and weight standards.djvu/285

 from the earliest times; and it will also be remembered that at an earlier stage we found that Abraham was able to traverse all the wide country that lay between Mesopotamia and the ancient kingdom of the Nile with his flocks and herds, and that he dwelt in the land of Canaan in close neighbourhood and on friendly terms with the sons of Heth, or Hittites, who were then the possessors of that land; and that furthermore monetary transactions were then carried on by means of certain small ingots of silver, as we see from the purchase of the Cave of Machpelah. These ingots, translated shekels in the English version and called didrachms in the Septuagint, are termed in Hebrew Keseph, simply pieces of silver, or silverlings. In the old Hebrew literature values in silver and gold are expressed either in shekels or by a simple numeral with the words "of silver," "of gold" added (where the latter method is followed the English version supplies pieces or substitutes "a thousand silverlings" for "a thousand of silver" (Isa. vii. 23). The Septuagint renders the skekel by the Greek didrachm). There are several inferences to be drawn from this. It is evident that pieces of silver (and no doubt of gold also) of a certain quality and weight were employed as currency in Palestine, and we may likewise suppose with some probability that these pieces of silver were according to the standard in common use in Egypt and Chaldaea. Again, since we have already shown that gold in the form of rings and other articles for personal adornment was exchanged according to the ox-unit of 130-5 grs., as evidenced by the story of the ring given to Rebekah, it follows that there was but one and the same standard for gold from the Euphrates to the Nile. This is confirmed by the story of the sale of Joseph by his brethren to the company of Ishmaelites "who came from Gilead with their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh going to carry it down to Egypt"; to these Ishmaelites or Midianites Joseph was sold for twenty pieces of silver. Here we have evidence that the same silver unit was current from Gilead to Egypt. There are various other large sums of silver mentioned both in Genesis and also in the Book of Judges and in Joshua. Thus Abimelech, King of Gerar, is said to have given Abraham) LXX.]