shekel

plural shekels · plural shekalim · alternative sheqel

1. A currency unit of both ancient and modern Israel.

   So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

   1769, Benjamin Blayney (Ed.), King James Bible (2 Samuel 24:24)

   2 more examples

   "Beauty is naught to him, because there are lips more honey-sweet; and wealth is naught, because others can weigh him down with heavier shekels; and fame is naught, because there have been greater men than he."

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

   “I sent the same amount I normally transfer and went to pick it up. It was about 300 shekels short. I said something to the cashier, like, ‘I think you gave me the wrong rate,’” HaBahiyir recalled. “That’s when I realized the shekel was strengthening.”

   2026 May 27, Theia Chatelle, “A stronger shekel has become a pressing problem for Americans building lives in Israel”, in The Times of Israel, archived from the original on 27 May 2026

2. slangMoney.

   The mob had filched anything that might earn them a shekel or two.

   2018, Gerry Woodhouse, Lord Damnus: Conqueror of the World

   2 more examples

   Her gownlet cost five hundred beans; / Her furs, four figures in a row; / Her hat removed from papa's jeans / A hundred shekels more or so.

   1914, The Judge, volume 66

   […] after the 1887-9 campaign was the great refuge of the destitute who, as they could not hope to rake in a breast-full of medals and decorations, expected, at any rate, to amass a good few shekels.

   1924, James Alban Wilson, Sport and Service in Assam and Elsewhere, page 288

3. historicalAn ancient unit of weight equivalent to one-fiftieth of a mina.

   And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold;

   1769, Benjamin Blayney (Ed.), King James Bible (Genesis 24:22)