Silver

Silver was the primary medium of exchange in the ancient Near East before coinage, measured by weight rather than denomination. It first appears as a commodity in Genesis 13:2 (Abraham was rich in silver), and the purchase of Machpelah for 400 shekels of silver (Genesis 23:15–16) illustrates the weighed-silver transaction standard. Joseph's brothers received 20 pieces of silver when they sold him to the Ishmaelites (Genesis 37:28), and Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces — the Mosaic price of a slave (Exodus 21:32; Zechariah 11:12–13; Matthew 26:15).

Silver was used extensively in the Tabernacle: the 100 sockets for the framework were each cast from a talent of silver contributed by the census ransom (Exodus 38:25–27). The refining of silver by fire — removing dross to purify the metal — became a standard metaphor for divine discipline: I have refined you, but not as silver (Isaiah 48:10); Malachi 3:3 pictures the Messiah as a refiner of silver purifying the sons of Levi. Zechariah 13:9 uses the same image for the remnant refined through tribulation.