Scripture · Old Testament
2 Samuel 14:26
2 Samuel 14:26 is verse 26 of 2 Samuel chapter 14, shown here in the Berean Standard Bible.
Berean Standard Bible
And when he cut the hair of his head—he shaved it every year because his hair got so heavy—he would weigh it out to be two hundred shekels, according to the royal standard.
200 shekels is approximately 5 pounds or 2.3 kilograms of hair.
King James Version
And when he polled his head, (for it was at every year’s end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king’s weight.
World English Bible
When he cut the hair of his head (now it was at every year’s end that he cut it; because it was heavy on him, therefore he cut it), he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels, after the king’s weight.
A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces, so 200 shekels is about 2 kilograms or about 4.4 pounds.
Read in context
2 Samuel 14:24–28 · Berean Standard Bible
24 But the king added, “He may return to his house, but he must not see my face.” So Absalom returned to his own house, but he did not see the king.
25 Now there was not a man in all Israel as handsome and highly praised as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the top of his head, he did not have a single flaw.
26 And when he cut the hair of his head—he shaved it every year because his hair got so heavy—he would weigh it out to be two hundred shekels, according to the royal standard.
27 Three sons were born to Absalom, and a daughter named Tamar, who was a beautiful woman.
28 Now Absalom lived in Jerusalem two years without seeing the face of the king.
Read all of 2 Samuel 14Hebrew words
Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Study 2 Samuel 14:26
Cross-references
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.
2 Samuel 18:9Now Absalom was riding on his mule when he met the servants of David, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s head was caught fast in the tree. The mule under him kept going, so that he was suspended in midair.
Isaiah 3:24Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of styled hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, shame.
1 Corinthians 11:14Doesn’t nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him,
Genesis 23:16Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the standard of the merchants.
Leviticus 19:36You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Ezekiel 45:9For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Enough, O princes of Israel! Cease your violence and oppression, and do what is just and right. Stop dispossessing My people, declares the Lord GOD.’
Ezekiel 45:10You must use honest scales, a just ephah, and a just bath.
Ezekiel 45:11The ephah and the bath shall be the same quantity so that the bath will contain a tenth of a homer, and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer will be the standard measure for both.
Ezekiel 45:12The shekel will consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels will equal one mina.
Ezekiel 45:13This is the contribution you are to offer: a sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and a sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley.
Ezekiel 45:14The prescribed portion of oil, measured by the bath, is a tenth of a bath from each cor (a cor consists of ten baths or one homer, since ten baths are equivalent to a homer).