“Also take fine spices: of liquid myrrh, five hundred shekels; and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, even two hundred and fifty; and of fragrant cane, two hundred and fifty;
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 23. Spices. Perfumes were probably first invented in Arabia and Egypt. Ovid makes Bacchus the author of bloody sacrifices, and of incense offered to Jupiter. Fast. 3.—Myrrh. Hebrew “the head of the myrrh of liberty,” or such as flowed freely and was most excellent, free from any mixture. Sudant sponte … stacten dictam. Plin. xii. 15. Calmet.—Stacte takes its name from distilling. Menochius.—Sicles; this is not expressed in the Heb., as this measure is commonly meant.—Cinnamon, a plant extremely rare. Matthcole assures us, that it is not now to be found in Arabia, no more than balm in Judea.—Calamus. Hebrew adds the epithet sweet-smelling both to cinnamon and calamus, or cane, the latter of which grows in the Indies. Dioscor. i. 17. That which druggists sell, under this name, is not a proper ingredient for ointments.
A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces, so 500 shekels is about 5 kilograms or about 11 pounds.