(22) Unto an hundred talents of silver . . .--A certain restriction is laid upon the amount, although the very restriction seems almost indefinite. The silver might reach 24,000 sterling. As to the rest, Palestine abounded in these productions, which were regularly remitted to the king's service. Salt especially was plentiful near the Dead Sea.

Verse 22. - Unto a hundred talents of silver. At the lowest estimate of the Jewish silver talent, this would be a permission to draw on the royal treasury to the amount of £24,000 sterling. If we adopt the views of Mr. R.S. Peele ('Dict. of the Bible, Articles, MONEY and WEIGHTS AND MEASURES), it would authorise drawing to the amount of £40,000. A hundred measures of wheat. Literally, "a hundred cors of wheat," as given in the margin. The cor is variously estimated, at 44.25 gallons and at 86.67 gallons. It contained ten baths. Orders on the treasury for so much wheat, wine, oil, and salt sound strangely in modern ears; but were natural enough in the Persian system, where taxation was partly in kind, and every province had to remit to the court the choicest portion of its produce. Wine, corn, oil, and salt were all of them produced abundantly in Palestine, which was "a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of off olive, and of honey" (2 Kings 18:32), and which, in the region about the Dead Sea, abounded with salt.

7:11-26 The liberality of heathen kings to support the worship of God, reproached the conduct of many kings of Judah, and will rise up in judgment against the covetousness of wealthy professed Christians, who will not promote the cause of God. But the weapons of Christian ministers are not carnal. Faithful preaching, holy lives, fervent prayers, and patient suffering when called to it, are the means to bring men into obedience to Christ.Unto one hundred talents of silver,.... Which amounted to 35,300 pounds sterling; these, according to Jarchi, were to buy the offerings or sacrifices with:

and an hundred measures of wheat; or corn, the same measure with the homer, each of which held ten ephahs, or seventy five wine gallons, five pints, and upwards; these, according to the same writer, were for meat offerings, made of fine flour, or rather bread offerings, as they may be called:

and to an hundred baths of wine; which was the same measure in liquids as the ephah in things dry, a tenth part of the cor or homer, and held seven wine gallons, five pints, and upwards (u); these were for the drink offerings:

and to an hundred baths of oil; the same measure as before; these were to mix in the meat offerings:

and salt without prescribing how much; because it was used in all offerings, and was cheap, and therefore no measure is fixed, but as much as was wanting was to be given, see Leviticus 2:1.

(u) See Cumberland's Scripture Weights and Measures, ch. 4. p. 137.