Silver

Silver runs through Scripture as wealth measured by weight, as the metal of trumpets and tabernacle sockets and temple vessels, as the bullion of idols and tribute, and as the figure under which Yahweh tries his people. The same substance that buys a field, weighs out a betrayer's wages, plates an idol, and rims a turret also stands in the prophets for the refined remnant. The references gathered here track silver through those movements: as money, as material, as ornament, as object of trade, and as image.

Silver as Money and Patriarchal Wealth

The earliest silver in the canon belongs to Abram: "And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold" (Ge 13:2). The metal is so embedded in household life that the covenant clause anticipates a slave "bought with silver of any foreigner who is not of your seed" (Ge 17:12). Silver is reckoned by shekel-weight rather than coin: Abimelech gives Sarah "a thousand [shekels of] silver" as a covering of the eyes (Ge 20:16); Abraham buys Machpelah for "four hundred shekels of silver" (Ge 23:15); Micah's mother counts out "the eleven hundred [shekels] of silver that were taken from you" (Jg 17:2); Gehazi schemes for "a talent of silver, and two changes of raiment" (2Ki 5:22). Amos turns the same idiom against Israel: "they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals" (Am 2:6) — and again, "that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals" (Am 8:6).

The Price of Christ's Betrayal

Two prophetic verses are gathered under one sub-heading in the topical tradition. Amos's "sold the righteous for silver" (Am 2:6) is paired with Zechariah's weighed-out wage: "If you⁺ think good, give me my wages; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my wages thirty [shekels] of silver" (Zec 11:12).

Silver in the Tabernacle

Silver enters the wilderness sanctuary in three ways: as freewill offering, as census ransom, and as fitted hardware. "And this is the offering which you⁺ will take of them: gold, and silver, and bronze" (Ex 25:3); "Everyone who offered an offering of silver and bronze brought Yahweh's offering" (Ex 35:24). The total is exact: "And the silver of those who were numbered of the congregation was a hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary" (Ex 38:25). That silver becomes infrastructure — sockets under the boards, hooks and fillets on the pillars: "And he made forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards" (Ex 36:24); "their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their capitals, and their fillets, of silver" (Ex 38:19); "the hooks of the pillars, and their fillets, of silver" (Ex 27:11). The dedication offerings come in matched silver pairs: "twelve silver platters, twelve silver bowls, twelve golden spoons" (Nu 7:84). And the camp's signal instruments are silver: "Make two trumpets of silver; of beaten work you will make them: and you will use them for the calling of the congregation, and for the journeying of the camps" (Nu 10:2).

Silver in the Temple

David prepares silver for the house his son will build: "in my affliction I have prepared for the house of Yahweh a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver" (1Ch 22:14); "the silver for the [things of] silver" (1Ch 29:2); "[of silver] for all the vessels of silver by weight, for all vessels of every kind of service" (1Ch 28:14). Solomon hires a Tyrian master "skillful to work in gold, and in silver, in bronze, in iron" (2Ch 2:14). Tribute flows in: "they brought every man his tribute, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold" (1Ki 10:25; cf. 2Ch 9:24). After Joash's reform "they brought the rest of the silver before the king and Jehoiada, of which were made vessels for the house of Yahweh" (2Ch 24:14), but the parallel verdict on the second temple period notes a stoppage: "But there were not made for the house of Yahweh cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the silver that was brought into the house of Yahweh" (2Ki 12:13).

The temple's silver vessels track Israel's history into exile and back: Nebuchadnezzar carries them off, Belshazzar profanes them — "Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem" (Da 5:2) — and Cyrus restores them: "the gold and silver vessels also of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem, and brought into the temple of Babylon, those Cyrus the king took out of the temple of Babylon" (Ezr 5:14). The returning community gives "vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts" (Ezr 1:6). A late-prophetic oracle still pictures captured silver vessels: "their gods, with their molten images, [and] with their goodly vessels of silver and of gold, he will carry captive into Egypt" (Da 11:8).

Silver Vessels Outside the Sanctuary

Silver vessels also figure as diplomatic gift and royal cup. Toi sends Joram to David with "vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and vessels of bronze" (2Sa 8:10). Joseph plants his cup — "my cup, the silver cup" — in Benjamin's sack (Ge 44:2).

Silver in Trade and Abundance

Tarshish supplies the metal: "Tarshish was your merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded for your wares" (Eze 27:12). In Solomon's Jerusalem the supply outruns measure: "the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars he made to be as the sycamore trees that are in the lowland, for abundance" (1Ki 10:27). Qoheleth surveys his own accumulation: "I gathered myself also silver and gold, and the treasure of kings and of the provinces" (Ec 2:8). Isaiah turns the same abundance to indictment: "their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures" (Isa 2:7). The Maccabean record continues this register, sometimes as plunder, sometimes as tribute, sometimes as bribe. Antiochus "took the silver and gold, and the precious vessels: and he took the hidden treasures which he found" (1Ma 1:23); his herald promises Mattathias "gold, and silver, and many presents" (1Ma 2:18); his treasury fails — "the silver of his treasures failed" (1Ma 3:29) — and his enemies hear of "Elymais in Persia... abounding in silver and gold" (1Ma 6:1). Slave-traders carry "silver and gold in abundance" to buy Israelites (1Ma 3:41); Judas seizes "much gold, and silver, and blue silk, and purple of the sea" (1Ma 4:23); Jonathan brings the rival kings "much silver, and gold, and presents" (1Ma 10:60); Trypho extorts "a hundred talents of silver" with hostages (1Ma 13:15-16); Simon ships "two thousand chosen men to aid him, silver also, and gold, and much equipment" (1Ma 15:26); Ptolemy son of Abubus has "abundance of silver and gold" at Jericho (1Ma 16:11) and offers his accomplices "silver and gold and gifts" (1Ma 16:19).

Silver in Ornament and Architecture

Beyond bullion, silver appears as adornment. The lover's circle promises "plaits of gold with studs of silver" (So 1:11) and pictures defense as "a turret of silver" (So 8:9). Wisdom likens speech to filigree: "A word fitly spoken is [like] apples of gold in network of silver" (Pr 25:11). Idol-makers also build with silver chains and silver overlay (see below).

Silver Idols

The Sinai prohibition is explicit: "Gods of silver or gods of gold you⁺ will not make for yourselves" (Ex 20:23). Hosea's northern indictment is exact: "they... have made for themselves molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen" (Ho 13:2). Isaiah's parody of idol-making includes the silversmith's chains: "The image, a workman has cast [it], and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts [for it] silver chains" (Isa 40:19). Isaiah also forecasts the day Israel will "defile the overlaying of your⁺ graven images of silver, and the plating of your⁺ molten images of gold" (Isa 30:22).

The Refining of Silver

The metaphor most often pressed in the prophets and the Psalms is the refiner. The proverb states the trade-craft principle: "The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold; But Yahweh tries the hearts" (Pr 17:3). The Psalter applies it to Yahweh's own word — "The words of Yahweh are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, Purified seven times" (Ps 12:6) — and to Yahweh's discipline of his people: "you, O God, have proved us: You have tried us, as silver is tried" (Ps 66:10). Two proverbs bind the assay-work to vessel-making and to moral character: "Take away the dross from the silver, And there comes forth a vessel for the refiner" (Pr 25:4); "Fervent lips and a wicked heart Are [like] an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross" (Pr 26:23). When Israel resists the assay, the metaphor turns dark. Jeremiah: "The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away" (Jer 6:29); "Men will call them refuse silver, because Yahweh has rejected them" (Jer 6:30). Ezekiel: "the house of Israel has become dross to me: all of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are the dross of silver" (Eze 22:18). Yet the figure is also a promise of restoration. Zechariah: "I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried" (Zec 13:9). Malachi sets the refiner at the end of the line: "he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they will offer to Yahweh offerings in righteousness" (Mal 3:3).

Silver in Wisdom and Sirach

Wisdom literature consistently subordinates silver to a higher value. "For the gaining of it is better than the gaining of silver, And its profit than fine gold" (Pr 3:14); "My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold; And my revenue than choice silver" (Pr 8:19); "How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! Yes, to get understanding is rather to be chosen than silver" (Pr 16:16); "The tongue of the righteous is [as] choice silver: The heart of the wicked is worth little" (Pr 10:20). Sirach takes the same line: "Gold and silver make the foot stand sure, But better than both is counsel esteemed" (Sir 40:25). Of Solomon, Sirach writes that he "heaped up gold like tin, And multiplied silver like lead" (Sir 47:18).

Silver as Cord and as Image

Two final, distinct figures. Qoheleth's elegy for the failing body: "before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern" (Ec 12:6). And Daniel's image of empire, where silver sits below the head of gold and above the bronze and iron: "its head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze" (Da 2:32). When the stone strikes, all the metals — the silver included — collapse: "the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, were broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away" (Da 2:35).