קְשִׂיטָה

From the study of Job 42:11

Range of meaning

A unit of value or weight whose amount is unknown, probably a piece of silver weighed out. It occurs only three times: Gen 33:19, Josh 24:32 and here.

Against the English

KJV and WEB say "a piece of money", BSB and NIV "a piece of silver", YLT keeps "kesitah". "Money" suggests a struck coin. Coins were not used in this region until roughly the Persian period, and the word belongs to the world of the patriarchs.

How it drifted

Translators had to supply something for an unknown unit, and "money" or "silver" was the safest guess.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Gen 33:19 Jacob buys land at Shechem for 100 qəśîṭāh. The Septuagint renders the word "lambs" (amnoi) in Genesis and "a ewe-lamb" in Job. The Vulgate follows with "one sheep" (ovem unam). That may preserve a memory of a value reckoned in sheep, or of weights shaped like lambs. The Babylonian Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 26a) reports Rabbi Akiva's comment that a small coin (the ma'ah) was called qesitah "in Africa".

From the study of Genesis 33:19

Range of meaning

A unit of payment of unknown value. It occurs only three times (Gen 33:19; Josh 24:32; Job 42:11), always in old-sounding, patriarchal settings. Most lexicons (BDB, HALOT) take it as a weighed amount of silver, perhaps a set weight. Its relation to the shekel is unknown.

Against the English

KJV/WEB/ESV 'pieces of money'; BSB/NIV/NLT 'pieces of silver'; YLT simply transliterates 'kesitah'. 'Silver' is a reasonable guess. 'Money' and 'pieces' tend to make modern readers picture coins, which did not exist yet.

How it drifted

Translators needed a familiar word for an unknown unit. 'Pieces of money/silver' was the natural English choice from the 1500s on, when 'money' meant coins. Coined money appears only around the 7th–6th centuries BC, long after the setting of this story.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Septuagint renders it 'a hundred lambs' (here and Josh 24:32), and in Job 42:11 'a ewe-lamb'. The Latin Vulgate follows with 'centum agnis'. This may preserve a tradition that the unit was a lamb's value, or that weights were cast in the shape of a lamb (animal-shaped weights are known from the ancient Near East). The Babylonian Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 26a) reports Rabbi Akiva saying that in 'Africa' a coin called a ma'ah was called a qesitah, and Rashi follows this.

From the study of Joshua 24:32

Range of meaning

A unit of value. Its weight and nature are unknown. It occurs only three times: Genesis 33:19, Joshua 24:32 and Job 42:11, all in patriarchal or deliberately old-fashioned settings.

Against the English

KJV and BSB say 'pieces of silver'. ESV and others say 'pieces of money'. YLT transliterates 'kesitah'. 'Silver' is not in the Hebrew, and coins did not exist in the patriarchal world.

How it drifted

Translators had to put something for an unknown word. 'Pieces of silver' borrows the price language of Genesis 23:16 and of later times. 'Money' brings in a modern currency picture.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Septuagint here and at Genesis 33:19 renders it 'a hundred ewe-lambs'. That may preserve a memory that a qesitah was worth about one lamb, or it may be a guess. A rabbinic tradition credited to Rabbi Akiva (Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 26a) says a coin called qesitah was used in 'Africa', but that is a much later explanation. Before coins appeared in the 7th–6th centuries BC, payments were made in weighed silver, often broken bits and rings (archaeologists call this 'hacksilber').