What Is gerah (Biblical Hebrew)?
The gerah is a very small ancient Hebrew unit that was used in Bible times. It measured both weight and money. In the Bible, 20 gerahs made 1 shekel.
Definition
A gerah is an old unit from the Hebrew Bible. It is defined as one twentieth of a shekel.
Scholars try to match it to modern units. Because ancient weights were not always the same, we can only give an estimate. Many experts think:
- 1 gerah was about 0.5 to 0.6 grams
- So 20 gerahs or 1 shekel was about 10 to 12 grams
This means a gerah was a tiny bit of weight, close to the weight of a small grain or seed.
History / Origin
The gerah comes from ancient Israel and other nearby lands in the Middle East. It was used during Bible times for temple gifts, taxes, and trade.
The Hebrew word for gerah is written like this גרה. Some people think the word is linked to a small seed or a grain, because the unit was so light.
In the Old Testament, the gerah appears when God gives rules about offerings, silver payments, and the weight of holy objects. The main money and weight unit was the shekel, and the gerah was the small part of it.
Symbol & Abbreviation
The gerah is not a modern unit, so it has no official symbol like g for gram or m for meter.
Writers use a few simple forms when they need to show it:
- Word: gerah or plural gerahs or gerot
- Hebrew: גרה
- Short form in some books: gr or ghr but this is not standard
In school science or math you will almost never see it used as a normal unit.
Current Use Around the World
The gerah is no longer used in everyday life. People do not buy or sell things in gerahs today.
However, the gerah is still important in a few areas:
- Bible study People use it to understand laws about offerings and money in the Old Testament.
- History and archaeology Experts use it when they study old weights, coins, and trade systems from ancient Israel and nearby lands.
- Translations and commentaries Bible notes often explain how many grams or shekels a gerah might be.
Modern countries do not have the gerah in their official unit systems. They use grams, kilograms, and modern money units like dollars or shekels.
Example Conversions
Remember, all modern values are only estimates, because ancient weights were not exact and were not always the same in every place and time.
For these examples, we will use this common estimate:
- 1 gerah ≈ 0.57 grams
| Gerahs | Shekels | Approx grams | Approx ounces |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 gerah | 0.05 shekel | 0.57 g | 0.02 oz |
| 5 gerahs | 0.25 shekel | 2.85 g | 0.10 oz |
| 10 gerahs | 0.5 shekel | 5.7 g | 0.20 oz |
| 20 gerahs | 1 shekel | 11.4 g | 0.40 oz |
A simple way to think about it:
- 20 gerahs make 1 shekel
- About 2 gerahs are close to 1 gram
Related Units
The gerah belongs to a family of ancient Hebrew weight and money units. They were linked by simple whole number ratios so people could trade more easily.
- Shekel Main unit of weight and silver money in the Bible. 1 shekel = 20 gerahs.
- Bekah A half shekel unit. 1 bekah = 10 gerahs.
- Mina A larger unit used in trade and for treasures. Often taken as 50 or 60 shekels. That would be 1000 or 1200 gerahs.
- Talent Very large unit for huge amounts of metal or wealth. Often counted as many minas, so thousands of shekels and tens of thousands of gerahs.
- Pim Another small Hebrew weight found on some ancient stones. It is a few grams, different from the gerah but in the same weight system.
FAQs
Is the gerah still used today
No. The gerah is a historical and biblical unit. Modern countries do not use it in shops or science. It appears in Bible studies and history books only.
How many gerahs are in a shekel
In the Bible system, 1 shekel equals 20 gerahs. This ratio is very clear in the Old Testament laws and is the main way we define the gerah.
How heavy was 1 gerah in modern units
Most scholars think that 1 gerah was about 0.5 to 0.6 grams. This is only an estimate, because ancient weights were not perfectly standard like modern metric units.
Was a gerah money or weight
It was used for both. People weighed silver and other metals in gerahs, and at the same time that weight of silver counted as money for payment or trade.
Why is the gerah important for Bible readers
Knowing what a gerah is helps readers understand the size of offerings, taxes, and fines in the Bible. It shows how big or small those payments were for people back then.
Is the gerah the same as a modern gram
No. A gerah is an old unit with no exact modern match. We only say it is close to about half a gram so people can imagine its size more easily.