the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
Click here to learn more!
Bible Encyclopedias
Kesitah
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (קְשַׂיטָה, A.V. "piece of money," "piece of silver"). The meaning and derivation of this word, which only occurs thrice in the 0. T., has been a subject of much controversy. The places where it is found Genesis 33:19, recording Jacob's purchase of a piece of ground at Shechem; Joshua 24:32, a verbal repetition from Genesis; and Job 42:11, where the presents made to Job are specified, and it is joined with rings of gold indicate either the name of a coin or of some article used in barter. The principal explanations of the word are:
1. That of the Sept. and all ancient versions, which render it " a lamb," either the animal itself or a coin bearing its impress (Hottinger, Diss. de Numm. Orient.), a view which has been revived in modern times by the Danish bishop Munter in a treatise published at Copenhagen, 1824, and more recently still by Mr. James Yates, Proc. of Numism. Society, 1837, 1838, p. 141. The entire want of any etymological ground for this interpretation has led Bochart (Hierozoic. i, 1. 2, c. 3) to imagine that there had been a confusion in the text of the Sept. between ἑςατὸν μνῶν and ἑκατὸν ἀμνῶνς, and that this error has passed into all the ancient versions, which may'be supported by the singular fact that in Genesis 31:7; Genesis 31:41,we find עֲשֶׂרֶת מֹנַים (A.V."" ten times," מנה however, more usually standing for a particular weight) translated by the Sept. δέκα ἀμνῶν , which it is difficult to account for on any supposition save that of a mistake of the copyist for μνῶν. (See SHEEP).
2. Others, adopting the rendering "lamb," have imagined a reference to a weight formed in the shape of that animal, such as we know to have been in use among the Egyptians and Assyrians, imitating bulls, antelopes, geese, etc. (see Wilkinson's Anc. Egypt. ii, 10; Layard; Nineveh and Babylon, p. 600-602; Lepsius, Denkmale, 3:plate 39, No. 3).
3. Faber, in the German edition of Harmzer's Obs. ii, 15-19, quoted by'Gesenius (Thesaur. p. 1241), connects it with the Syriac kesta, Heb. קֶסֶת, "a vessel," an etymology accepted by Grotefend (see below), and considers it to have been either a measure or a silver vessel used in barter (comp. AElian, V. H. i, 22).
4. The most probable view, however, is that supported by Gesenius, Rosenmulller, Jahn, Kalisch, and the majority of the soundest interpreters, that it was, in Grotefend's words (Numism. Chronicles ii, 248), "merely a silver weight of undetermined size, just as the most ancient shekel was nothing more than a piece of rough silver without any image or device." The lost root was perhaps akin to the Arabic kasat, "he divided equally." Bochart, however (ut sup.), is disposed to alter the punctuation of the Shin, and to connect the word with קשֶׁט "truth," adding " potuit ק id est vera dici moneta quaecunque habuit justum pondus, ant etiam moneta sincera et ἀκίβδηλος."
According to Rabbi Akiba, quoted by Bochart, a certain coin bore this name in comparatively modern times, so that he would render the word by דנקי, δάνακες : Kitto, s.v. See Kitto, Daily Bible Illustrations, ad loc. Job. (See MONEY).
These files are public domain.
McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Kesitah'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/k/kesitah.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
