A LOT — first the pebble or marked stone that is cast, then the share it assigns you, then the inheritance you hold; the Greek Bible's standing rendering of the Hebrew goral. Acts 1 uses it both ways within ten verses: Judas 'was allotted his share (klēros) in this ministry' (v17), and the lot (klēros) falls on Matthias (v26) — the LAST casting of lots anywhere in the Bible. Its English afterlife is odd and exact: through Latin clericus it is the root of CLERGY, a word for the ordained that began as a word for a dice-throw. → first discussed at Acts 1:26