"In the rude ages of society, cattle are said to have been the common instrument of commerce; and, though they must have been a most inconvenient one, yet, in old times, we find things were frequently valued according to the number of cattle which had been given in exchange for them. The armour of Diomede, says Homer, cost only nine oxen; but that of Glaucus cost a hundred oxen. "
This made me think of the fact that the wealth of Job is expressed in animals, a detail that I have considered rather strange up to now, since I have thought that the Book of Job is not so old and because Abraham already used money to buy the place in Makpelah:
"My lord, listen to me. What is a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver between me and you? Therefore bury your dead."
Ephron to Abraham
But it seems that the Book of Job is indeed very old:
"His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred she-donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east."
From the Book of Job
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