A small bag people used to carry money and often other small objects. There are three Hebrew words and three Greek words referring to such a purse or pouch. The first refers to a purse or bag in which money or stone weights used with balance scales were carried (Deuteronomy 25:13; Proverbs 1:14; Isaiah 46:6; Micah 6:11). Purses could be made of leather or stout cotton.
Another Hebrew word referring to a similar kind of pouch is found in 2 Kings 5:23. This same word also appears in a list of ladies’ finery in Isaiah 3:22 and may have been a more ornamental pouch than the first described above. The third Hebrew word appears in Genesis 42:35 and refers to a little bag with an open mouth. This was the small bag or purse in which Joseph’s brothers’ money had been placed before it was put into their sacks of grain.
The Greek word used to translate the Hebrew means money bag or purse. When Jesus sent out his disciples two by two, he told them not to take, among other things, a purse (Luke 10:4; 22:35–36). In Luke 12:33 this same word for purse is used figuratively for treasure in heaven that cannot be exhausted, stolen, or destroyed.
Another Greek word identifies the usual place for carrying money as the girdle or the belt. Belts were an essential part of dress for both men and women in the ancient East. When made of leather, they were made hollow or with slots for carrying coins. When made of cloth, they were folded in such a manner that money could be carried in the folds, which served as pockets (Matthew 10:9; Mark 6:8).
The Greek word for the "money bag" that Judas kept for the disciples refers to a case or container for the mouthpiece of a wind instrument. By New Testament times it had become the Greek word for a money box or possibly a money bag (John 12:6; 13:29).