Hebrew word · H1235
בֶּ֫קַע
beka'
bekah
A weight equal to half a shekel, from a root meaning 'to split'. It appears in the Bible only here and in Exodus 38:26.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) half, part also called "shekel of the sanctuary" or "holy shekel"
2) half a shekel (meton) There appears to be at least three different shekels, one of silver, gold and copper. See a Bible Dictionary for a complete treatment of the subject.
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of Genesis 24:22
- Range of meaning
A weight equal to half a shekel, from a root meaning 'to split'. It appears in the Bible only here and in Exodus 38:26.
- Against the English
BSB and YLT keep the Hebrew word ('beka', 'bekah'). KJV and WEB explain it as 'half a shekel'. Both are accurate. The transliteration keeps the original term and the paraphrase is easier to grasp.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Exodus 38:26 defines it directly: a beka per person, 'half a shekel by the shekel of the sanctuary'. Small stone weights inscribed with the same word have been found in Judah, dating from the later monarchy, and weigh around 6 grams (see Kletter's study of Judean weights). Those finds are later than the setting of the story, so the modern figure is an approximation.
Where it appears
Genesis · 1
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Genesis 24:22 בֶּ֖קַע [was] a beka
And after the camels had finished drinking, he took out a gold ring weighing a beka, and two gold bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels.
Here: A unit of weight, half a shekel, roughly 6 grams. The word comes from a verb meaning 'to split', so it is literally a 'split' or half measure.
Exodus · 1
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Exodus 38:26 בֶּ֚קַע a beka
a beka per person, that is, half a shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, from everyone twenty years of age or older who had crossed over to be numbered, a total of 603,550 men.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.