Judges 8:26
And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold; beside ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and beside the chains that were about their camels' necks.
And the weight of the golden earrings he requested was one thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold,.... Which, as Schcuchzer {e} computes, was eight hundred and ten ounces, five drachms, one scruple, and ten grains, of the weight of physicians; but as reckoned by Moatanus {f} amounted to eight hundred and fifty ounces, and were of the value of 6800 crowns of gold; and, according to Waserus {g}, it amounted to 3400 Hungarian pieces of gold, and of their money at Zurich upwards of 15,413 pounds, and of our money 2,380 pounds:
besides ornaments; such as were upon the necks of the camels, Judges 8:21 for the same word is used here as there:
and collars; the Targum renders it a crown, and Ben Melech says in the Arabic language the word signifies clear crystal; but Kimchi and Ben Gersom take them to be golden vessels, in which they put "stacte", or some odoriferous liquor, and so were properly smelling bottles:
and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian; which it seems was the colour that kings wore, as they now do; so Strabo {h} says of the kings of Arabia, that they are clothed in purple:
and besides the chains that were about their camels' necks; which seem to be different from the other ornaments about them, since another word is here used; now all these seem to have been what fell to his share, as the general of the army, and not what were given him by the people.
{e} Physica Sacra, vol. 3. p. 468.
{f} Tubal Cain, p. 15.
{g} De Numis. Heb. l. 2. c. 10.
{h} Geograph. l. 16. p. 539.