Gerah

The gerah was the smallest unit of weight in the Old Testament Hebrew system of measurement, equal to one-twentieth of a shekel. It appears repeatedly in the Pentateuch as the standard subdivision of the sacred shekel used in temple assessments and offerings. The shekel of the sanctuary was defined as twenty gerahs (Exodus 30:13; Leviticus 27:25; Numbers 3:47; Ezekiel 45:12), providing the fundamental ratio by which all calculations of weight for offerings, poll taxes, and redemption payments were made.

The half-shekel temple tax required of every Israelite male was thus ten gerahs. The gerah's weight has been estimated at approximately 0.57 grams, making the shekel approximately 11.4 grams of silver. Archaeological discoveries of shekel weights from the monarchic period have confirmed the general accuracy of these estimates, though weights varied across time and region. The precision of the Pentateuchal references to the gerah reflects the careful standardization of sacred commerce — ensuring that offerings and redemption payments to the sanctuary met consistent, verifiable standards rather than varying by local market weights.