Biblical Silver References

The history of silver as a precious metal goes back thousands of years. In the Bible, silver was mentioned quite a number of times. Back then, silver was as valuable a commodity as gold, though it was more much abundant. Today, we will look at some of the instances when silver was featured in the Old Testament.

In Genesis 23:16-19, we see Abraham entering into a business deal with Ephron. Abraham bought the "field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all borders round about" for four hundred shekels of silver. The sons of Heth were present as witnesses when the deal was being struck. Why did Abraham buy the piece of land? It occurred that his wife Sarah had died when she reached one hundred and twenty seven years of age, in Kirjatharba, Heron, in the land of Canaan. Being in a foreign land, Abraham bought the land to bury Sarah in "the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre."

In Genesis 44:1-2, Joseph "commanded the steward of his house, saying, Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth. And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, and his corn money." This is the story of Joseph, the man who had a gift of interpreting dreams. When he was younger, his brothers were jealous of him because their father Jacob loved him the most. One day, they had enough of Joseph and plotted to kill him. After putting him in a pit, they decided to sell Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver. Then, they cooked up a story about how Joseph was devoured by an evil beast.

Somehow, Joseph ended up in Egypt where he rose to become the ruler of all the land of Egypt after he interpreted a dream which tormented the Pharaoh, preparing the country against a devastating famine. When his brothers came to Egypt to ask for help, Joseph set a trap by accusing them of stealing, but it's all to test them. Finally, Joseph gave good provisions and gifts to his brothers, but he specially gave 300 pieces of silver to Benjamin.

Silver was truly valuable in the days of Abraham and Jacob. Presently, 400 shekels of silver is equivalent to about USD 1830, which is definitely not enough to buy a piece of land! What you can do is to sell silver to a trusted silver buyer. That's a sure way to get instant cash for silver!