sekel

A sekel is an ancient Near Eastern unit used both as a weight and as a currency unit, most prominently in the Hebrew Bible and related cultures. In English, the term is usually rendered as shekel; sekel is a common transliteration variant found in some translations and linguistic studies. The word derives from the Hebrew root shaqal, meaning to weigh.

As a weight, the sekel served as a standard in various city-states and temples. In biblical Hebrew practice, a common reference is the “shekel of the sanctuary,” a standardized weight used for offerings and payments. The Bible also mentions the half-shekel offering, as well as the gerah, a smaller unit that was 1/20 of a shekel. Although the weight varied by time and place, a widely cited modern-era approximation for a Hebrew hereshke(l) is about 11.3 grams per shekel, with smaller denominations used for monetary transactions.

As a currency, the sekel functioned as money in ancient commerce, with coins or weighed metal bearing the unit’s name. The usage spread across the Levant and parts of Mesopotamia, and the concept of a standard monetary unit named after the weight persisted in religious and civic contexts.

In modern times, the term remains part of the Hebrew-language name for the national currency: the Israeli shekel. Since 1985, the currency has been the Israeli new shekel, subdivided into 100 agorot. The historical terms sekel or shekel are still encountered in scholarly discussion and in biblical translations, reflecting the enduring legacy of this ancient unit.