Pieces
(1) of silver. In Ps 68:30 denotes “fragments,” and not properly money. In 1 Sam 2:36 (Heb. agorah), properly a “small sum” as wages, weighed rather than coined. Josh 24:32 (Heb. kesitah, q.v.), supposed by some to have been a piece of money bearing the figure of a lamb, but rather simply a certain amount. (Comp. Gen 33:19).
(2.) The word pieces is omitted in many passages, as Gen 20:16; Gen 37:28; Gen 45:22, etc. The passage in Zech 11:12, Zech 11:13 is quoted in the Gospel (Matt 26:15), and from this we know that the word to be supplied is “shekels.” In all these omissions we may thus warrantably supply this word.
(3.) The “piece of money” mentioned in Matt 17:27 is a stater=a Hebrew shekel, or four Greek drachmae; and that in Luke 15:8, Luke 15:9, Acts 19:19, a Greek drachma=a denarius. (See Penny.)
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
