Shekels (biblical) to Kilograms (shekel to kg)

1 shekel (biblical) equals 0.0115 kilograms exactly.

1 shekel (biblical) = 0.0115 kilograms

How to convert shekels (biblical) to kilograms

To convert shekels (biblical) to kilograms, multiply the number of shekels (biblical) by 0.0115. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply kilograms by 86.95652174 (rounded).

kilograms = shekels (biblical) × 0.0115

Example: 10 shekels (biblical) = 0.115 kilograms.

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

About these units

Shekel (biblical) (shekel)

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

About 11.5 g. The usual biblical weight for silver and gold; the name later became a currency.

Long before it meant a modern currency, the shekel was a weight. The word comes from a Proto-Semitic root and matches Akkadian siqlu, and it is attested as early as about 2150 BC under Naram-Sin of Akkad. English acquired it through the Hebrew Bible, where it first turns up in Genesis 23. Israelites, Moabites, Edomites and Phoenicians all weighed metal in shekels long before coinage took hold in the region.

Ancient shekels ranged from about 7 to 17 grams across the region. A two-shekel weight from the First Temple period weighs 23 grams, or about 11.5 grams each, which is the figure used here, though it is one estimate and not a certainty. A separate Shekel of the Sanctuary served the Temple. Later, Jews paid an annual half-shekel to the Temple, and the Tyrian shekel was the coin preferred for that tax. The modern Israeli shekel is a fiat currency and carries no fixed weight of metal. The biblical weight is roughly that of two nickels, or about 0.4 ounce.

1 shekel (biblical) = 0.0115 kilograms (approximately).

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

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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