Kesitah
(, 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 Gen 33:19, recording Jacob’s purchase of a piece of ground at Shechem; Jos 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 and , and that this error has passed into all the ancient versions, which may’be supported by the singular fact that in Gen 31:7; Gen 31:41,we find (A.V.”” ten times,” however, more usually standing for a particular weight) translated by the Sept. , which it is difficult to account for on any supposition save that of a mistake of the copyist for . 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. , “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 “truth,” adding ” potuit id est vera dici moneta quaecunque habuit justum pondus, ant etiam moneta sincera et .”
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 , : Kitto, s.v. See Kitto, Daily Bible Illustrations, ad loc. Job. SEE MONEY.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Kesitah
(Gen. 33:19, R.V., marg., a Hebrew word, rendered, A.V., pl. “pieces of money,” marg., “lambs;” Josh. 24:32, “pieces of silver;” Job 42:11, “piece of money”). The kesitah was probably a piece of money of a particular weight, cast in the form of a lamb. The monuments of Egypt show that such weights were used. (See PIECES)
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Kesitah
KESITAH is given in RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] as the Heb. word rendered piece of money in the three passages Gen 33:19, Jos 24:32, and Job 42:11. No clue has yet been found to the weight, and therefore the value, of the kesitah; but that it was an ingot of precious metal of a recognized value is more probable than the tradition represented by several ancient versions, which render it by lamb.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Kesitah
kesi-ta, ke-seta (, kestah). See PIECE OF MONEY.