Hebrew Talents to Kilograms (talent to kg)

1 Hebrew talent equals 28.8 kilograms exactly.

1 Hebrew talent = 28.8 kilograms

How to convert Hebrew talents to kilograms

To convert Hebrew talents to kilograms, multiply the number of Hebrew talents by 28.8. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply kilograms by 0.03472222222 (rounded).

kilograms = Hebrew talents × 28.8

Example: 10 Hebrew talents = 288 kilograms.

Approximate value. Standards for the Hebrew talent varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.

About these units

Hebrew Talent (talent)

Biblical (Hebrew)Historical unit (no longer in standard use)Approximate value

About 28.8 kg, the standard talent of the late Second Temple period. The largest biblical weight, used for metals such as gold, silver and bronze.

The Hebrew word kikkar comes from a Semitic root meaning circular, and it described a round mass of gold or silver. English renders it as talent, borrowing the Greek term. The Bible uses it for the largest sums of metal: the tabernacle account lists 29 talents of gold and 100 talents of silver, and Solomon is said to have received 666 gold talents in a year. Hiram of Tyre is also reported to have sent him 120 talents of gold.

Its size is not settled. The figure used here, about 28.8 kg, is the standard talent of the late Second Temple period, counted as 60 maneh. A heavy common talent of the same era is put at about 58.9 kg, a Babylonian talent at about 30.2 kg, and another estimate at about 27.3 kg, so sources do not settle on one value. For scale, 28.8 kg is about 63 pounds, or roughly a large sack of cement.

1 Hebrew talent = 28.8 kilograms (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Talent (measurement); Wikipedia: Shekel; Wikipedia: Mina (unit)

Kilogram (kg)

Metric (SI)Current unit

The SI base unit of mass. Since 2019 it is defined by fixing the value of the Planck constant, replacing the old platinum-iridium cylinder in Paris.

Oddly for a base unit, the kilogram began life as a derived one. In 1793 revolutionary France defined the grave as the mass of one litre of water, and a decree of 1795 then replaced it with the kilogramme, a name built from the Greek khilioi (a thousand) and gramma, a Late Latin word for a small weight. In 1799 a platinum cylinder, the Kilogramme des Archives, became the physical standard, matching a cubic decimetre of water at its densest, around 4 degrees Celsius. In 1889 the metric community adopted a platinum-iridium cylinder made in 1879, the International Prototype of the Kilogram, nicknamed Le Grand K.

The kilogram is still the only SI base unit with a prefix in its name. Because SI forbids stacked prefixes, a millionth of a kilogram is a milligram rather than a microkilogram, so every mass prefix is attached to the gram. Calibrating every national standard against one object in a vault near Paris meant that all of them drifted relative to it, so in November 2018 member states voted to tie the kilogram to a fixed value of the Planck constant. The change took effect on 20 May 2019. Day to day nothing shifted, but the definition no longer depends on a single piece of metal.

The kilogram is the reference unit for weight & mass on this site.

Sources: NIST: Kilogram introduction (SI redefinition); Wikipedia: Kilogram

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