Ezekiel 45:12

12. The LXX. is to be preferred, “And the shekel shall be for you twenty gerah, five shekels a V; and ten shekels a X; and fifty shekels the maneh.” This was according to the old Hebrew usage. In later times, according to Professor Peters, there were sixty shekels in the maneh ( Journal of Biblical Literature, xii), but Kautzsch considers this to be the earlier usage, and thinks Ezekiel here changes from the old sexagesimal to the new decimal system. Coined money was certainly used elsewhere in this century (see Introduction to Daniel, III, 2, 3), and perhaps this marks the time of its introduction among the Hebrews. Dr. Davidson quotes from Bertheau the following table of values:

Talent 1 Maneh 60 1 Shekel 3,000 50 1 Beka 6,000 100 2 1 Gera 60,000 1,000 20 10 1

Toy calculates the Hebrew silver shekel to have been worth about fifty-five cents, though its purchasing power was at least ten times as great, and quotes Dr. G.A. Reisner’s opinion, that the ratio of gold and silver among the old Babylonians was not 1:13½, or 1:16, but about 1:30. It has been proved from many examples of Babylonian weights, of Ezekiel’s day and earlier, digged up in recent years, that there were several systems in use the light maneh, for example, only weighing about half as much as the heavy maneh so there was great need of a corrected scale such as the above.