And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.
The shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh. The standard weights were lost when the Chaldeans destroyed the temple. The three-fold enumeration of shekels, twenty, twenty-five, fifteen, probably refers to coins of different value, representing respectively so many shekels, the three collectively making up a maneh. By weighing these together against the maneh, a test was afforded whether they severally had their proper weight: sixty shekels in all, containing one coin a fourth of the whole (fifteen shekels) another a third (twenty shekels) another a third and a twelfth (twenty-five shekels). (Menochius.) The Septuagint read, 'fifty shekels shall be your maneh.'