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used in the time of Abraham may have been of a fixed weight, which was in some way indicated on them. The “pieces of silver” paid by Abimelech to Abraham (Genesis 20:16), and those also for which Joseph was sold (37:28), were proably in the form of rings. The shekel was the common standard of weight and value among the Hebrews down to the time of the Captivity. Only once is a shekel of gold mentioned (1 Chronicles 21:25). The “six thousand of gold” mentioned in the transaction between Naaman and Gehazi (2 Kings 5:5) were probably so many shekels of gold. The “piece of money” mentioned in Job 42:11; Genesis 33:19 (marg., “lambs”) was the Hebrew kesitah, probably an uncoined piece of silver of a certain weight in the form of a sheep or lamb, or perhaps having on it such an impression. The same Hebrew word is used in Joshua 24:32, which is rendered by Wickliffe “an hundred yonge scheep.”
•COLLAR (Hebrews peh), means in Job 30:18 the mouth or opening of the garment that closes round the neck in the same way as a tunic (Exodus 39:23). The “collars” (Hebrews netiphoth) among the spoils of the Midianites (Judges 8:26; R.V., “pendants”) were ear-drops. The same Hebrew word is rendered “chains” in Isaiah 3:19.
•COLLECTION The Christians in Palestine, from various causes, suffered from poverty. Paul awakened an interest in them among the Gentile churches, and made pecuniary collections in their behalf (Acts 24:17; Romans 15:25, 26; 1 Corinthians 16:1-3; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Galatians 2:10).
•COLLEGE Hebrews mishneh (2 Kings 22:14; 2 Chronicles 34:22), rendered in Revised Version “second quarter”, the residence of the prophetess Huldah. The Authorized Version followed the Jewish commentators, who, following the Targum, gave the Hebrew word its post-Biblical sense, as if it meant a place of instruction. It properly means the “second,” and may therefore denote the lower city (Acra), which was built after the portion of the city on Mount Zion, and was enclosed by a second wall.
•COLONY The city of Philippi was a Roman colony (Acts 16:12), i.e., a military settlement of Roman soldiers and citizens, planted there to keep in subjection a newly-conquered district. A colony was Rome in miniature, under Roman municipal law, but governed by military officers (praetors