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Verse 19

For a hundred pieces of money - The original, קשיטה במאה bemeah kesitah , has been a matter of long and learned discussion among critics. As kesitah signifies a lamb, it may imply that Jacob gave the Hamorites one hundred lambs for the field; but if it be the same transaction that St. Stephen refers to in Acts 7:16 , it was money, τιμης αργυριον , a sum or price of silver, which was given on the occasion. It has been conjectured that the money had the figure of a lamb stamped on it, because it was on an average the value of a lamb; and hence it might be called a kesitah or lamb from the impression it bore. It is certain that in many countries the coin has had its name from the image it bore; so among our ancestors a coin was called an angel because it bore the image of an angel; hence also a Jacobus, a Carolus, a Lewis, (Louis d' Or), a Joe, because certain coins in England, Spain, France, and Portugal, bore on one side the image of the kings of those countries, James, Charles, Lewis, Joseph, or Johannes. The Athenians had a coin called βους , an ox, because it was stamped with the figure of an ox. Hence the saying in Aeschylus:

Τα δ ' αλλα σιγω, βους επι γλωττηςπ

μεγαςΒεβηκεν

Agam. v. 36.

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