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Money, Current

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

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kur´ent ( עבר , ‛ōbhēr , "passing," Genesis 28:16; 2 Kings 12:4 (Hebrew 5)): The text and translation in 2 Kings 12:4 are uncertain and difficult. See the Revised Version margin. The reference is probably not to a money standard, but to a poll tax which was levied in addition to the free-will offering. Genesis 23:16 implies the existence of a standard shekel and also probably the use of the precious metals in stamped bars or ingots of an approximately fixed weight or value, a primitive coinage. Code of Hammurabi presupposes these pieces, and records in cuneiform writing discovered in Cappadocia indicate that shekel pieces with a seal stamp were in use in Asia Minor in the time of Hammurabi (Sayce, Contemporary Review , August, 1907, XCII , 259 ff). The existence of these pieces did not do away with the custom of weighing money, a practice which obtained in Israel down to the time of the exile (Jeremiah 32:10 ).