Wednesday, July 23, 2025

The Use of "Piece(s)" for Money that is Not Coinage

Commenting on Alma 11:4 and the phrase, “Now these are the names of the different pieces of their gold, and their silver, according to their value,” we find the following note in the Book of Mormon Critical Text (2025):

 

cf Gen 33:19 qesita “pieces of money” [KJ marg rdg “lambs”—not in 1828 Phinney of 1979 LDS  KJ]; Ex 37:7 qeša “piece” (of gold”); Josh 24:32 qesita “pieces of silver” [KJ marg rdg “lambs”—not in Phinney or 1979 LDS KJ]; I Sam 2:36 ‘qgorat kesef “pieces of silver”; Job 42:11 qesita “piece of money”; Ps 68:30 raṣe-kesef “pieces of silver”; none of these are coins. (Book of Mormon Critical Text: A Tool for Scholarly Reference, ed. Robert F. Smith, 4 vols. [3d ed.; Provo, Utah: Deep Forest Green Books, 2025], 2:534

 

Here are the relevant verses:

 

And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for an hundred pieces of money (בְּמֵאָ֖ה קְשִׂיטָֽה). (Gen 33:19)

 

And he made two cherubims of gold, beaten out of one piece (מִקְשָׁה) made he them, on the two ends of the mercy seat (Exo 38:6)

 

And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces (בְּמֵאָ֣ה קְשִׂיטָ֑ה) of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. (Josh 24:32)

 

And it shall come to pass, that everyone one that is left in thine house shall come and crouch to him for a piece of silver (‎לַאֲג֥וֹרַת כֶּ֖סֶף) and a morsel of bread, and shall say, Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priests’ offices, that I may eat a piece of bread. (1 Sam 2:36)

 

Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all that they had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in the house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money (קְשִׂיטָ֣ה), and every one and earring of gold. (Job 42:11)

 

Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people, till every one submit himself with pieces of silver (בְּרַצֵּי־כָ֑סֶף): scatter thou the people that delight in war. (Psa 68:30 [Heb: 68:31])