אֲגוֹרָה

From the study of 1 Samuel 2:36

Range of meaning

This word occurs only here in the Bible. Most lexicons give "a small payment" or "a small piece (of silver)." Older lexicons such as BDB take it as "something collected," a small coin. Many modern scholars tie it to the Akkadian word family agāru ("to hire"), whose noun igru means "wage." On that view an agorah is a hireling's wage, a day-labourer's pay.

Against the English

Most English versions say "a piece of silver." That is safe but colourless. YLT's "a wage of silver" keeps the possible sense of hired labour. NLT-style paraphrases like "money" lose how small the amount is.

How it drifted

"Piece of silver" can call up a coin, and coins were not minted in Israel at this time. Readers may also think of Judas's "thirty pieces of silver," which is a different Greek expression and a different setting.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint renders it obolos, the smallest common Greek silver unit. Medieval Jewish commentators often equated it with the gerah, the smallest weight in Exod 30:13 (one twentieth of a shekel). Modern Israel named its smallest coin, the agora (1/100 shekel), after this verse, which shows how firmly "tiny sum" became fixed to the word.