Bidspirit auction | Iron Age JUDAEA Kingdom, first

Iron Age JUDAEA Kingdom, first temple period ”PIM” stone Commercial Scale weight. 8-7 Century BC. Weight 7.72 grams, Diameter 19.5 mm. - Descriptions of the type : Not for export! The word ” pim ” appears only once in the Hebrew Bible, in 1 Samuel 13:21 : “And the charge was a pim for the plowshares, and for the mattocks, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads.” This term is not mentioned in the Talmud or other early Hebrew sources. Although it may be understood as a unit of payment, its precise meaning remained unclear for centuries. Early translations of the Bible into other languages did not assign it a monetary interpretation, and traditional Jewish commentators often associated it with a type of sharpening implement. During early 20th-century excavations at Tel Gezer , led by British archaeologist R.A.S. Macalister, a weight inscribed in Paleo-Hebrew with the word ”pim” was discovered. Since then, additional examples of weights and silver ingots bearing the same inscription have come to light. These archaeological finds have shed new light on the term, leading to its interpretation as a unit of value. As a result, the 1982 New King James Version of the Bible translates pim as the price paid for sharpening tools.