StrongerBible

keseph

כֶּסֶף

HebrewH3701silver, money, ...

Appears 403 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 13:2Gen 17:12Gen 17:13Gen 17:23Gen 17:27Gen 20:16Gen 23:9Gen 23:13Gen 23:15Gen 23:16 (2×)Gen 24:35Gen 24:53Gen 31:15Gen 37:28Gen 42:25Gen 42:27Gen 42:28Gen 42:35 (2×)Gen 43:12 (2×)Gen 43:21 (2×)Gen 43:22Gen 43:23Gen 44:1Gen 44:2Gen 47:15Gen 47:16Exo 12:44Exo 21:11Exo 21:21Exo 21:35Exo 26:21Exo 26:32Exo 27:10Exo 27:11Exo 27:17Exo 30:16Exo 36:26Exo 36:36Exo 38:17Exo 38:25Lev 5:15Lev 22:11Lev 25:37Lev 25:50Lev 25:51Lev 27:15Lev 27:191Ki 20:31Ki 20:51Ki 20:7
Root family
Word studyKEH-sefnoun

What keseph means

silver: the precious metal, and by extension the money and the price reckoned in it

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

One word covers both the shining gray metal and the money made from it, because in ancient Israel silver was the money. Before coins existed, people paid by weighing out lumps of silver, so the same word names the metal in the ground, the jewelry and idols and temple fittings made from it, and the payment handed over to buy a field or redeem a life.

These uses are not separate words that happen to look alike. They are one thing seen from different angles: the material, the wealth it stores, and the specific sum it settles. A single verse can slide between them, as when Abraham weighs out silver to buy a burial plot and the text means at once the metal, the money, and the agreed price.

The senses below sort the occurrences by which angle is in view. The metal sense covers silver as a substance you can craft or refine. The money sense covers silver as stored wealth and the medium of exchange. The price sense covers a named amount set as the cost of something. Many verses blend these, and the unclassified pool holds the occurrences where the angle is mixed or not worth forcing into one slot.

Nuances

1asilver as a metal or material: the substance itself, refined, crafted into objects, or contrasted with other metals
Exo 20:23Exo 26:19Job 28:1Psa 12:6Psa 66:10Pro 10:20Pro 17:3Pro 25:11Pro 27:21Isa 2:20Ezk 16:17Hos 8:4
1bsilver as money: stored wealth and the medium of exchange weighed out to buy, sell, and pay
Gen 23:13Gen 31:15Gen 37:28Gen 42:25Gen 44:2Exo 21:11Exo 22:7Exo 30:16Deu 14:252Ki 12:4Ezr 8:26Lam 5:4
1csilver as a stated price: a named amount of silver set as the cost of buying something or the value of redeeming someone
Gen 23:9Gen 23:15Gen 23:16 (2×)Exo 21:32Lev 5:15Lev 25:50Lev 25:51Lev 27:15Num 18:16Deu 22:191Ch 21:22Zec 11:12

What scholars say about keseph

The standard lexica (HALOT, BDB, DCH) treat כֶּסֶף as a single word whose range runs from the metal silver to silver as money and a stated price, the monetary uses arising naturally because weighed silver was the currency of pre-coinage Israel. The split into metal, money, and price is a division of senses within one word, not a division into homonyms; this matches the lexica, which do not posit two unrelated roots. The word is cognate with terms for silver across the Semitic languages, and the metal-as-money development is paralleled across the ancient Near East.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. כֶּסֶףlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. כֶּסֶףlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. כֶּסֶףlexicon
  • TDOT, s.v. כֶּסֶף (kesep)dictionary

All attested forms of כֶּסֶף

m s absolute

כֶּסֶף, כָּסֶף

Gen 13:2, Gen 17:12, Gen 17:27, Gen 20:16, Gen 23:9, Gen 23:15, Gen 23:16, Gen 23:16

m s construct

כֶּסֶף

Gen 23:13, Gen 43:21, Gen 44:1, Gen 44:2, Exo 30:16, Exo 38:17, Exo 38:25, Lev 5:15

m s construct

כַּסְפּוֹ

Gen 17:23, Gen 42:27, Gen 42:35, Exo 21:21, Exo 21:35, Lev 22:11, Psa 15:5, Isa 2:20

m s construct

כַּסְפָּם

Isa 60:9, Ezk 7:19, Ezk 7:19, Hos 8:4, Hos 9:6, Hos 13:2, Zep 1:18

m s construct

כַּסְפְּךָ, כַּסְפֶּךָ

Lev 25:37, 1Ki 20:3, 1Ki 20:5, Gen 17:13, Isa 30:22

m s construct

כַּסְפִּי

Gen 42:28, 1Ki 20:7, Ezk 16:17, Jol 3:5

m s construct

כַּסְפֵּנוּ

Gen 31:15, Gen 43:21, Gen 43:22

m p construct

כַּסְפֵּיהֶם

Gen 42:25, Gen 42:35

m s construct

כַּסְפֵּךְ

Isa 1:22

m s construct

כַּסְפְּכֶם

Gen 43:23