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Beka

Hebrew בֶּקַע. Literally "a split". Also called Beqa, Half shekel.

Half a shekel — the census offering every Israelite man paid alike.

Mass
5.5–5.75 g (0.194–0.203 oz). Defined as 1/2 of a shekel.

A beka is half a shekel, and it is the fixed head tax of the wilderness census: the rich were not to give more nor the poor less. Exodus records the arithmetic openly — a beka a head from 603,550 men, which is how the hundred talents of silver for the tabernacle's sockets were raised. Inscribed beka weights have been excavated in Jerusalem.

The weights, as silver at true size Each weight drawn as a cube of silver at its true size, beside a US quarter: a gerah, a twentieth of a shekel, 0.55–0.575 g, a speck under 4 millimetres across; a beka, half a shekel; a pim, two thirds; a shekel, 11–11.5 g, about a centimetre across; thirty pieces of silver, the price in Matthew 26:15, 330–345 g, a cube about 3 centimetres across; a mina, fifty shekels; and a talent, three thousand shekels, 33–34.5 kg, a block about 15 centimetres across. a geraha twentieth0.55–0.575 g0.0194–0.0203 oza bekahalf a shekel5.5–5.75 g0.194–0.203 oza pimtwo thirds7.33–7.67 g0.259–0.27 oza shekelthe anchor11–11.5 g0.388–0.406 ozthirty of silverMatthew 26:15330–345 g11.6–12.2 oza minafifty shekels550–575 g1.21–1.27 lba talentthree thousand shekels33–34.5 kg · 72.8–76.1 lba US quarter, for sizeeach weight as a cube of silver, at true size
Silver was weighed, not counted, until coins reached Judah, so each weight is drawn as the cube that much silver makes. A shekel is about a centimetre across; the thirty pieces of silver would sit in a palm; a talent is a block a hand and a half wide.

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