972 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



or worn in rings on the finger;^ "thougli Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, 

 King of Judab, were the signet upon my riglit hand, yet I would pluck 

 thee hence." The seal was used for signing letters and documents.^ 

 "So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal;" 

 for sealing purses.^ "My transgression is sealed up in a bag," doors 

 and the like.* " So they went and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the 

 stone." The custom of making an impression with the seal upon the 

 forehead-of a person is alluded to in the Epistle to the Galatians vi, 

 17: "I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus," and Revelations 

 vii, 3 and 4: "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we 

 shall have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads." 



Biblical weights. — The weights (like the measures) of the 

 Hebrews are usually traced to the Babylonian system, which is con- 

 sidered the parent of other oriental systems. The unit of the Hebrew 

 weights was the shekel ; the other weights were either its multiples or 

 fractions. The weights mentioned in the Bible are as follows: Talent^ 

 (kUdar), equals 60 minas or 3,600 shekels, equal to about 674,000 grains 

 Troy; mina^ {maneh), equals 60 shekels, equal to about 11,000 grains 

 Troy; shekel (sheqel), equal to about 220 grains, one-twentieth {gerah) 

 of a shekel,' or about 11 grains.^ Scales, mo^znayim, consisted of a 

 beam resting at its central point on a standard, and having suspended 

 from its two ends two scales or basins in which the weights and the 

 substances to be weighed were placed respectively.'* Alongside of the 

 moznayhn there is also mentioned ^;eZes,^" which is assumed to answer to 

 the modern steelyard, also called Eomau balance or beam, consisting 

 of a lever in the form of a slender iron bar with one arm very short, 

 the other divided by equidistant notches, having a small cross piece as 

 a fulcrum to which a bearing for suspension is attached, usually a hook 

 at the short end, and a weight moving upon the long arm. The weights 

 themselves were called in the Hebrew " stones," rendered "weights" 

 in the English versions. 



Cast of an ancient Hebrew weight. — The original, which is of 

 hematite, was obtained by Dr. Th. Chaplin, in Samaria. The weight is 

 spindle shaped, somewhat flattened on one side, and weighs about 40 

 grains. It has on both sides a Hebrew legend, which is interpreted to 

 mean " Quarter of a quarter of ne(;eg," which may have been a stand- 

 ard weight in Palestine." 



' Jeremiah xxii, 24. 



2 1 Kings XXI, 8. 



^ Job xiv, 17. 



^ Matthew xxvii, 66. 



^I Kings ix, 14; x, 10, 14; II Kings t, 23. Compare Matthew xviii, 24. 



' Ezekiel xlv, 12. 



'Exodus XXX, 13; Leviticus xxvii, 25; Ezekiel xlv, 12. 



« Psalms Ixii, 9; Proverbs xi, I; xvi, II; xx, 23; Job vi, 2; xxxi, 6. 



9E. C. Bissell, Biblical Antiquities, Philadelphia, 1888. 

 '"Isaiah xl, 12; Proverbs xvi, II. 



"Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1890, p. 267; 1894, pp. 220-231, 

 284-287. 



