KESITAH. This word is to be met with in Genesis and in Job, and is translated in the Septuagint and Vulgate, sheep or lambs. But the rabbin and modern interpreters are generally of opinion that kesitah signifies a piece of money. Bochart and Eugubius conceive that the Septuagint meant mine, and not lambs; in Greek, hecatomnon, ixateuon, instead of ixateu dymon. Now a mina was worth sixty Hebrew shekels, and consequently equal to L.6. 16s. 10d. sterling. Pelletier is of opinion that kesitah was a Persian coin, stamped on one side with an archer (kesitah, or keseth, in Hebrew, signifying a bow), and on the other with a lamb; and that this was a gold coin, known in the East by the name of daric. Several learned men, without mentioning the value of the kesitah, say it was a silver coin, the impression on which was a sheep, for which reason the Septuagint and Vulgate translate it by this name. Calmet is of opinion that kesitah was a purse of gold or silver; and in the East they reckon at present by
purses. The word kista, in Chaldee, signifies a measure, a vessel; and Eustathius says that kista is a Persian measure. Jonathan, and the Targum of Jerusalem, translate kesitah a pearl (Gen. xxxiii. 19; Job. xlii. 11), or L.9 English, supposing, as Dr Prideaux does, that a shekel is worth 3s. A daric is a piece of gold, which, according to Dr Prideaux, is worth 25s. of English money.