Exodus 21:32Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The soul of an unshackled Israelite, who has dedicated himself to the Lord and paid a redemption price, was esteemed at fifty shekels of silver, as specified in Leviticus 27:3. The shekel, as a coin, did not appear during the era of Moses; the introduction of actual coins is linked to a later period, namely the Babylonian exile. Nonetheless, it is believed that the weight of the shekel was close to the silver shekel, which was roughly equivalent to four Attic drachmas or about eighty kopecks of silver. Dom Calmet illustrates the Jewish shekel's weight, equivalent to four drachmas, as approximately 26434/35 grains of pure silver. He notes its value as ‘thirty-two sols, five deniers, and one-third of a denier’; however, it is essential to recognize that since Dom Calmet's time in 1730, the price of silver has substantially decreased.