Reference: Weights and Measures
Fausets
WEIGHTS: mishkol from "shekel" (the weight in commonest use); eben, a "stone", anciently used as a weight; peles, "scales". Of all Jewish weights the shekel was the most accurate, as a half shekel was ordered by God to be paid by every Israelite as a ransom. From the period of the Exodus there were two shekels, one for ordinary business (Ex 38:29; Jos 7:21; 2Ki 7:1; Am 8:5), the other, which was larger, for religious uses (Ex 30:13; Le 5:15; Nu 3:47). The silver in the half-shekel was 1 shilling, 3 1/2 pence; it contained 20 gerahs, literally, beans, a name of a weight, as our grain from grain.
The Attic tetradrachma, or Greek stater, was equivalent to the shekel. The didrachma of the Septuagint at Alexandria was equivalent to the Attic tetradrachma. The shekel was about 220 grains weight. In 2Sa 14:26 "shekel after the king's weight" refers to the perfect standard kept by David. Michaelis makes five to three the proportion of the holy shekel to the commercial shekel; for in Eze 45:12 the maneh contains 60 of the holy shekels; in 1Ki 10:17; 2Ch 9:16, each maneh contained 100 commercial shekels, i.e. 100 to (60 or five to three. After the captivity the holy shekel alone was used. The half shekel (Ex 38:26; Mt 17:24) was the beka (meaning "division"): the "quarter shekel", reba; the "20th of the shekel", gerah.
Hussey calculates the shekel at half ounce avoirdupois, and the maneh half pound, 14 oz.; 60 holy shekels were in the maneh, 3,000 in the silver talent, so 50 maneh in the talent: 660,000 grains, or 94 lbs. 5 oz. The gold talent is made by Smith's Bible Dictionary 100 manehs, double the silver talent (50 manehs); by the Imperial Bible Dictionary identical with it. (See SHEKEL; MONEY; TALENT.) A gold maneh contained 100 shekels of gold. The Hebrew talents of silver and copper were exchangeable in the proportion of about one to 80; 50 shekels of silver are thought equal to a talent of copper. "Talent" means a circle or aggregate sum. One talent of gold corresponded to 24 talents of silver.
MEASURES: Those of length are derived from the human body. The Hebrew used the forearm as the "cubit," but not the "foot." The Egyptian terms hin, 'ephah, and 'ammah (cubit) favor the view that the Hebrew derived their measures from Egypt. The similarity of the Hebrew to the Athenian scales for liquids makes it likely that both came from the one origin, namely, Egypt. Piazzi Smyth observes the sacred cubit of the Jews, 25 inches (to which Sir Isaac Newton's calculation closely approximates), is represented in the great pyramid, 2500 B.C.; in contrast to the ordinary standard cubits, from 18 to 21 inches, the Egyptian one which Israel had to use in Egypt. The 25-inch cubit measure is better than any other in its superior earth-axis commensurability. The inch is the real unit of British linear measure: 25 such inches (increased on the present parliamentary inch by one thousandth) was Israel's sacred cubit; 1.00099 of an English inch makes one pyramid inch; the earlier English inch was still closer to the pyramid inch.
Smyth remarks that no pagan device of idolatry, not even the sun and moon, is pourtrayed in the great pyramid, though there are such hieroglyphics in two older pyramids. He says the British grain measure "quarter" is just one fourth of the coffer in the king's chamber, which is the same capacity as the Saxon chaldron or four quarters. The small passage of the pyramid represents a unit day; the grand gallery, seven unit days or a week. The grand gallery is seven times as high as one of the small and similarly inclined passages equalling 350 inches, i.e. seven times 50 inches. The names Shofo and Noushofo (Cheops and Chephren of Herodotus) are marked in the chambers of construction by the stonemasons at the quarry. The Egyptian dislike to those two kings was not because of forced labour, for other pyramids were built so by native princes, but because they overthrew the idolatrous temples.
The year is marked by the entrance step into the great gallery, 90.5 inches, going 366 times into the circumference of the pyramid. The seven overlappings of the courses of polished stones on the eastern and the western sides of the gallery represent two weeks of months of 26 days each so there are 26 holes in the western ramp; on the other ramp 28, in the antechamber two day holes over and above the 26. Four grooves represent four years, three of them hollow and one full, i.e. three years in which only one day is to be added to the 14 x 26 for the year; the fourth full from W. to E., i.e. two days to be added on leap year, 366 days. The full groove not equal in breadth to the hollow one implies that the true length of the year is not quite 365 1/4 days. Job (Job 38:6) speaks of the earth's "sockets" with imagery from the pyramid, which was built by careful measurement on a prepared platform of rock.
French savants A.D. 1800 described sockets in the leveled rock fitted to receive the four corner stones. The fifth corner stone was the topstone completing the whole; the morning stars singing together at the topstone being put to creation answers to the shoutings, Grace unto it, at the topstone being put to redemption (Job 38:7; Zec 4:7); Eph 2:19, "the chief corner stone in which all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy tern. pie." The topstone was "disallowed by the builders" as "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense" to them; for the pyramids previously constructed were terrace topped, not topped with the finished pointed cornerstone.
Pyramid is derived from peram "lofty" (Ewald), from puros "wheat" (P. Smyth). The mean density of the earth (5,672) is introduced into the capacity and weight measures of the pyramid (Isa 40:12). The Egyptians disliked the number five, the characteristic of the great pyramid, which has five sides, five angles, five corner stones, and the five sided coffer. Israel's predilection for it appears in their marching five in a rank (Hebrew for "harnessed"), Ex 13:18; according to Manetho, 250,000, i.e. 5 x 50,000; so the shepherd kings at Avaris are described as 250,000; 50 inches is the grand standard of length in the pyramid, five is the number of books in the Pentateuch, 50 is the number of the Jubilee year, 25 inches (5 x 5) the cubit, an integral fraction of the earth's axis of rotation, 50 the number of Pentecost. (See NUMBER.)
The cow sacrifice of Israel was an "abomination to the Egyptians"; and the divinely taught builders of the great pyramid were probably of the chosen race, in the line of, though preceding, Abraham and closer to Noah, introducers into Egypt of the pure worship of Jehovah (such as Melchizedek held) after its apostasy to idols, maintaining the animal sacrifices originally ordained by God (Ge 3:21; 4:4,7; Heb 11:4), but rejected in Egypt; forerunners of the hyksos or shepherd kings who from the Canaan quarter made themselves masters of Egypt. The enormous mass of unoccupied masonry would have been useless as a tomb, but necessary if the pyramid was designed to preserve an equal temperature for unexceptionable scientific observations; 100 ft. deep inside the pyramid would prevent a variation of heat beyond 01 degree of Fahrenheit, but the king's chamber is 180 ft. deep to compensate for the altering of air currents through the passages.
The Hebrew finger, about seven tenths of an inch, was the smaller measure. The palm or handbreadth was four fingers, three or four inches; illustrates the shortness of time (Ps 39:5). The span, the space between the extended extremities of the thumb and little finger, three palms, about seven and a half inches. The old Mosaic or sacred cubit (the length from the elbow to the end of the middle finger, 25 inches) was a handbreadth longer than the civil cubit of the time of the captivity (from the elbow to the wrist, 21 inches): Eze 40:5; 43:13; 2Ch 3:3, "cubits after the first (according to the earlier) measure." The Mosaic cubit (Thenius in Keil on 1Ki 6:2) was two spans, 20 1/2 Dresden inches, 214,512 Parisian lines long.
Og's bedstead, nine cubits long (De 3:11) "after the cubit of a man," i.e. according to the ordinary cubit (compare Re 21:17) as contrasted with any
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Jehovah God doth make to the man and to his wife coats of skin, and doth clothe them.
and Abel, he hath brought, he also, from the female firstlings of his flock, even from their fat ones; and Jehovah looketh unto Abel and unto his present,
Is there not, if thou dost well, acceptance? and if thou dost not well, at the opening a sin-offering is crouching, and unto thee its desire, and thou rulest over it.'
And Abraham hasteth towards the tent, unto Sarah, and saith, 'Hasten three measures of flour-meal, knead, and make cakes;'
And they journey from Bethel, and there is yet a kibrath of land before entering Ephratha, and Rachel beareth, and is sharply pained in her bearing;
And I -- in my coming in from Padan-Aram Rachel hath died by me in the land of Canaan, in the way, while yet a kibrath of land to enter Ephrata, and I bury her there in the way of Ephrata, which is Bethlehem.'
and God turneth round the people the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, and by fifties have the sons of Israel gone up from the land of Egypt.
This is the thing which Jehovah hath commanded: Gather of it each according to his eating, an omer for a poll; and the number of your persons, take ye each for those in his tent.'
And Moses saith unto Aaron, 'Take one pot, and put there the fulness of the omer of manna, and let it rest before Jehovah, for a charge for your generations;' as Jehovah hath given commandment unto Moses, so doth Aaron let it rest before the Testimony, for a charge.
This they do give, every one passing over unto those numbered, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs); half a shekel is the heave-offering to Jehovah;
a bekah for a poll (half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary,) for every one who is passing over unto those numbered, from a son of twenty years and upwards, for six hundred thousand, and three thousand, and five hundred and fifty.
And the brass of the wave-offering is seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels;
When a person committeth a trespass, and hath sinned through ignorance against the holy things of Jehovah, then he hath brought in his guilt-offering to Jehovah, a ram, a perfect one, out of the flock, at thy valuation in silver -- shekels by the shekel of the sanctuary -- for a guilt-offering.
'Speak unto the sons of Israel, and thou hast said unto them, When ye come in unto the land which I am giving to you, and have reaped its harvest, and have brought in the sheaf, the beginning of your harvest unto the priest,
thou hast even taken five shekels a-piece by the poll -- by the shekel of the sanctuary thou takest; twenty gerahs the shekel is;
And a spirit hath journeyed from Jehovah, and cutteth off quails from the sea, and leaveth by the camp, as a day's journey here, and as a day's journey there, round about the camp, and about two cubits, on the face of the land.
for only Og king of Bashan had been left of the remnant of the Rephaim; lo, his bedstead is a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the sons of Ammon? nine cubits its length, and four cubits its breadth, by the cubit of a man.
and I see among the spoil a goodly robe of Shinar, and two hundred shekels of silver, and one wedge of gold, whose weight is fifty shekels, and I desire them, and take them; and lo, they are hid in the earth, in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.'
and in his polling his head -- and it hath been at the end of year by year that he polleth it, for it is heavy on him, and he hath polled it -- he hath even weighed out the hair of his head -- two hundred shekels by the king's weight.
As to the house that king Solomon hath built for Jehovah, sixty cubits is its length, and twenty its breadth, and thirty cubits its height.
There is nothing in the ark, only the two tables of stone which Moses put there in Horeb, when Jehovah covenanted with the sons of Israel in their going out of the land of Egypt.
and three hundred shields of alloyed gold -- three pounds of gold go up on the one shield; and the king putteth them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
and there is a great famine in Samaria, and lo, they are laying siege to it, till the head of an ass is at eighty silverlings, and a forth of the cab of dovesdung at five silverlings.
On what have its sockets been sunk? Or who hath cast its corner-stone? In the singing together of stars of morning, And all sons of God shout for joy,
Lo, handbreadths Thou hast made my days, And mine age is as nothing before Thee, Only, all vanity is every man set up. Selah.
Who hath measured in the hollow of his hand the waters? And the heavens by a span hath meted out, And comprehended in a measure the dust of the earth, And hath weighed in scales the mountains, And the hills in a balance?
And lo, a wall on the outside of the house all round about, and in the hand of the man a measuring-reed, six cubits by a cubit and a handbreadth, and he measureth the breadth of the building one reed, and the height one reed.
And lo, a wall on the outside of the house all round about, and in the hand of the man a measuring-reed, six cubits by a cubit and a handbreadth, and he measureth the breadth of the building one reed, and the height one reed.
And I have looked at the house, the height all round about: the foundations of the side-chambers are the fulness of the reed, six cubits by the joining.
And these are measures of the altar by cubits: The cubit is a cubit and a handbreadth, and the centre is a cubit, and a cubit the breadth; and its border on its edge round about is one span, and this is the upper part of the altar.
The ephah and the bath is of one measure, for the bath to bear a tenth of the homer, and the ephah a tenth of the homer: according to the homer is its measurement.
The ephah and the bath is of one measure, for the bath to bear a tenth of the homer, and the ephah a tenth of the homer: according to the homer is its measurement. And, the shekel is twenty gerah: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels -- is your maneh.
and the portion of oil, the bath of oil, a tenth part of the bath out of the cor, a homer of ten baths -- for ten baths are a homer;
And I buy her to me for fifteen silverlings, and a homer and a letech of barley;
Saying, When doth the new moon pass, And we sell ground corn? And the sabbath, and we open out pure corn? To make little the ephah, And to make great the shekel, And to use perversely balances of deceit.
Who art thou, O great mountain Before Zerubbabel -- for a plain! And he hath brought forth the top-stone, Cries of Grace, grace -- are to it.'
nor do they light a lamp, and put it under the measure, but on the lamp-stand, and it shineth to all those in the house;
'And whoever shall impress thee one mile, go with him two,
Another simile spake he to them: 'The reign of the heavens is like to leaven, which a woman having taken, hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.'
And they having come to Capernaum, those receiving the didrachms came near to Peter, and said, 'Your teacher -- doth he not pay the didrachms?' He saith, 'Yes.'
and, coming from the market-place, if they do not baptize themselves, they do not eat; and many other things there are that they received to hold, baptisms of cups, and pots, and brazen vessels, and couches. Then question him do the Pharisees and the scribes, 'Wherefore do thy disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but with unwashed hands do eat the bread?' read more. and he answering said to them -- 'Well did Isaiah prophesy concerning you, hypocrites, as it hath been written, This people with the lips doth honour Me, and their heart is far from Me; and in vain do they worship Me, teaching teachings, commands of men; for, having put away the command of God, ye hold the tradition of men, baptisms of pots and cups; and many other such like things ye do.'
and he said, A hundred baths of oil; and he said to him, Take thy bill, and having sat down write fifty. 'Afterward to another he said, And thou, how much dost thou owe? and he said, A hundred cors of wheat; and he saith to him, Take thy bill, and write eighty.
And, lo, two of them were going on during that day to a village, distant sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, the name of which is Emmaus,
and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
And there were there six water-jugs of stone, placed according to the purifying of the Jews, holding each two or three measures.
Then, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God,
by faith a better sacrifice did Abel offer to God than Cain, through which he was testified to be righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and through it, he being dead, doth yet speak.
and I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, 'A measure of wheat for a denary, and three measures of barley for a denary,' and 'The oil and the wine thou mayest not injure.'
and he measured its wall, an hundred forty-four cubits, the measure of a man, that is, of the messenger;
Hastings
Since the most important of all ancient Oriental systems of weights and measures, the Babylonian, seems to have been based on a unit of length (the measures of capacity and weight being scientifically derived there from), it is reasonable to deal with the measures of length before proceeding to measures of capacity and weight. At the same time it seems probable that the measures of length in use in Palestine were based on a more primitive, and (so far as we know) unscientific system, which is to be connected with Egypt. The Babylonian system associated with Gudea (c. b.c. 3000), on statues of whom a scale, indicating a cubit of 30 digits or 19? inches, has been found engraved, was not adopted by the Hebrews.
I. Measures of Length
The Hebrew unit was a cubit /6 of a reed, Eze 40:5), containing 2 spans or 6 palms or 24 finger's breadths. The early system did not recognize the foot or the fathom. Measurements were taken both by the 6-cubit rod or reed and the line or 'fillet' (Eze 40:3; Jer 31:39; 52:21; 1Ki 7:15).
The ancient Hebrew literary authorities for the early Hebrew cubit are as follows. The 'cubit of a man' (De 3:11) was the unit by which the 'bedstead' of Og, king of Bashan, was measured (cf. Re 21:17). This implies that at the time to which the passage belongs (apparently not long before the time of Ezekiel) the Hebrews were familiar with more than one cubit, of which that in question was the ordinary working cubit. Solomon's Temple was laid out on the basis of a cubit 'after the first (or ancient) measure' (2Ch 3:3). Now Ezekiel (Eze 40:5; 43:13) prophesies the building of a Temple on a unit which he describes as a cubit and a band's breadth, i.e. 7/5 of the ordinary cubit. As in his vision he is practically reproducing Solomon's Temple, we may infer that Solomon's cubit, i.e. the ancient cubit, was also /5 of the ordinary cubit of Ezekiel's time. We thus have an ordinary cubit of 6, and what we may call (by analogy with the Egyptian system) the royal cubit of 7 hand's breadths. For this double system is curiously parallel to the Egyptian, in which there was a common cubit of 0.450 m. or 17.72 in., which was /7 of the royal cubit of 0.525 m. or 20.67 in. (these data are derived from actual measuring rods). A similar distinction between a common and a royal norm existed in the Babylonian weight-system. Its object there was probably to give the government an advantage in the case of taxation; probably also in the case of measures of length the excess of the royal over the common measure had a similar object.
We have at present no means of ascertaining the exact dimensions of the Hebrew ordinary and royal cubits. The balance of evidence is certainly in favour of a fairly close approximation to the Egyptian system. The estimates vary from 16 to 25.2 inches. They are based on: (1) the Siloam inscription, which says: 'The waters flowed from the outlet to the Pool 1200 cubits,' or, according to another reading, '1000 cubits.' The length of the canal is estimated at 537.6 m., which yields a cubit of 0.525 to 0.527 m. (20.67 to 20.75 in.) or 0.538 m. (21.18 in.) according to the reading adopted. Further uncertainty is occasioned by the possibility of the number 1200 or 1000 being only a round number. The evidence of the Siloam inscription is thus of a most unsatisfactory kind. (2) The measurements of tombs. Some of these appear to be constructed on the basis of the Egyptian cubit; others seem to yield cubits of 0.575 m. (about 22.6 in.) or 0.641 m. (about 25.2 in.). The last two cubits seem to be improbable. The measurements of another tomb (known as the Tomb of Joshua) seem to confirm the deduction of the cubit of about 0.525 m. (3) The measurement of grains of barley. This has been objected to for more than one reason. But the Rabbinical tradition allowed 144 barley-corns of medium size, laid side by side, to the cubit; and it is remarkable that a recent careful attempt made on these lioes resulted in a cubit of 17.77 in. (0.451 m.), which is the Egyptian common cubit. (4) Recently it has been pointed out that Josephus, when using Jewish measures of capacity, etc., which differ from the Greek or Roman, is usually careful to give an equation explaining the measures to his Greek or Roman readers, while in the case of the cubit he does not do so, but seems to regard the Hebrew and the Roman-Attic as practically the same. The Roman-Attic cubit (1/2 ft.) is fixed at 0.444 m. or 17.57 in., so that we have here a close approximation to the Egyptian common cubit. Probably in Josephus' time the Hebrew common cubit was, as ascertained by the methods mentioned above, 0.450 m.; and the difference between this and the Attic-Roman was regarded by him as negligible for ordinary purposes. (5) The Mishna. No data of any value for the exact determination of the cubit are to be obtained from this source. Four cubits is given as the length of a loculus in a rock-cut tomb; it has been pointed out that, allowing some 2 inches for the bier, and taking 5 ft. 6 in. to 5 ft. 8 in. as the average height of the Jewish body, this gives 4 cubits = 5 ft. 10 in., or 17/2 in. to the cubit. On the cubit in Herod's Temple, see A. R. S. Kennedy in art. Temple (p. 902), and in artt. in Expository Times xx. [1908], p. 24 ff.
The general inference from the above five sources of information is that the Jews had two cubits, a shorter and a longer, corresponding closely to the Egyptian common and royal cubit. The equivalents are expressed in the following table:
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And it cometh to pass when the camels have finished drinking, that the man taketh a golden ring (whose weight is a bekah), and two bracelets for her hands (whose weight is ten bekahs of gold),
and setteth a journey of three days between himself and Jacob; and Jacob is feeding the rest of the flock of Laban.
And they journey from Bethel, and there is yet a kibrath of land before entering Ephratha, and Rachel beareth, and is sharply pained in her bearing;
And I -- in my coming in from Padan-Aram Rachel hath died by me in the land of Canaan, in the way, while yet a kibrath of land to enter Ephrata, and I bury her there in the way of Ephrata, which is Bethlehem.'
see, because Jehovah hath given to you the sabbath, therefore He is giving to you on the sixth day bread of two days; abide ye each in his place, no one doth go out from his place on the seventh day.'
it is square, doubled, a span its length, and a span its breadth.
This they do give, every one passing over unto those numbered, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs); half a shekel is the heave-offering to Jehovah;
And thou, take to thyself principal spices, wild honey five hundred shekels; and spice-cinnamon, the half of that, two hundred and fifty; and spice-cane two hundred and fifty; and cassia five hundred, by the shekel of the sanctuary, and olive oil a hin;
All the gold which is prepared for the work in all the work of the sanctuary (and it is the gold of the wave-offering) is twenty and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. And the silver of those numbered of the company is a hundred talents, and a thousand and seven hundred and five and seventy shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary; read more. a bekah for a poll (half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary,) for every one who is passing over unto those numbered, from a son of twenty years and upwards, for six hundred thousand, and three thousand, and five hundred and fifty.
it hath been square; double they have made the breastplate, a span its length, and a span its breadth, doubled.
and he hath brought it in unto the sons of Aaron, the priests, and he hath taken from thence the fulness of his hand of its flour and of its oil, besides all its frankincense, and the priest hath made perfume with its memorial on the altar, a fire-offering of sweet fragrance to Jehovah;
And on the eighth day he taketh two lambs, perfect ones, and one ewe-lamb, daughter of a year, a perfect one, and three tenth deals of flour for a present, mixed with oil, and one log of oil.
and the priest hath taken the one he-lamb, and hath brought it near for a guilt-offering, also the log of oil, and hath waved them -- a wave offering before Jehovah.
righteous balances, righteous weights, a righteous ephah, and a righteous hin ye have; I am Jehovah your God, who hath brought you out from the land of Egypt;
'And if of the field of his possession a man sanctify to Jehovah, then hath thy valuation been according to its seed; a homer of barley-seed at fifty shekels of silver;
And all thy valuation is by the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs is the shekel.
And they journey from the mount of Jehovah a journey of three days; and the ark of the covenant of Jehovah is journeying before them the journey of three days, to spy out for them a resting-place;
And a spirit hath journeyed from Jehovah, and cutteth off quails from the sea, and leaveth by the camp, as a day's journey here, and as a day's journey there, round about the camp, and about two cubits, on the face of the land.
for only Og king of Bashan had been left of the remnant of the Rephaim; lo, his bedstead is a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the sons of Ammon? nine cubits its length, and four cubits its breadth, by the cubit of a man.
and Ehud maketh for himself a sword, and it hath two mouths (a cubit is its length), and he girdeth it under his long robe on his right thigh;
And the first smiting which Jonathan and the bearer of his weapons have smitten is of about twenty men, in about half a furrow of a yoke of a field,
And it cometh to pass, when those bearing the ark of Jehovah have stepped six steps, that he sacrificeth an ox and a fatling.
and in his polling his head -- and it hath been at the end of year by year that he polleth it, for it is heavy on him, and he hath polled it -- he hath even weighed out the hair of his head -- two hundred shekels by the king's weight.
And its thickness is an handbreadth, and its edge as the work of the edge of a cup, flowers of lilies; two thousand baths it containeth.
and three hundred shields of alloyed gold -- three pounds of gold go up on the one shield; and the king putteth them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
and he buildeth with the stones an altar, in the name of Jehovah, and maketh a trench, as about the space of two measures of seed, round about the altar.
and there is a great famine in Samaria, and lo, they are laying siege to it, till the head of an ass is at eighty silverlings, and a forth of the cab of dovesdung at five silverlings.
and there is a great famine in Samaria, and lo, they are laying siege to it, till the head of an ass is at eighty silverlings, and a forth of the cab of dovesdung at five silverlings.
And in these hath Solomon been instructed to build the house of God: The length in cubits by the former measure is sixty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.
For ten acres of vineyard do yield one bath, And an homer of seed yieldeth an ephah.
For ten acres of vineyard do yield one bath, And an homer of seed yieldeth an ephah.
For ten acres of vineyard do yield one bath, And an homer of seed yieldeth an ephah.
And gone out again hath the measuring line Over-against it, unto the height of Gareb, And it hath compassed to Goah.
As to the pillars, eighteen cubits is the height of the one pillar, and a cord of twelve cubits doth compass it, and its thickness is four fingers hollow.
As to the pillars, eighteen cubits is the height of the one pillar, and a cord of twelve cubits doth compass it, and its thickness is four fingers hollow.
And He bringeth me in thither, and lo, a man, his appearance as the appearance of brass, and a thread of flax in his hand, and a measuring-reed, and he is standing at the gate,
And lo, a wall on the outside of the house all round about, and in the hand of the man a measuring-reed, six cubits by a cubit and a handbreadth, and he measureth the breadth of the building one reed, and the height one reed.
And lo, a wall on the outside of the house all round about, and in the hand of the man a measuring-reed, six cubits by a cubit and a handbreadth, and he measureth the breadth of the building one reed, and the height one reed.
And lo, a wall on the outside of the house all round about, and in the hand of the man a measuring-reed, six cubits by a cubit and a handbreadth, and he measureth the breadth of the building one reed, and the height one reed.
And lo, a wall on the outside of the house all round about, and in the hand of the man a measuring-reed, six cubits by a cubit and a handbreadth, and he measureth the breadth of the building one reed, and the height one reed.
And the boundaries are one handbreadth, prepared within all round about: and on the tables is the flesh of the offering.
And these are measures of the altar by cubits: The cubit is a cubit and a handbreadth, and the centre is a cubit, and a cubit the breadth; and its border on its edge round about is one span, and this is the upper part of the altar.
And these are measures of the altar by cubits: The cubit is a cubit and a handbreadth, and the centre is a cubit, and a cubit the breadth; and its border on its edge round about is one span, and this is the upper part of the altar.
The ephah and the bath is of one measure, for the bath to bear a tenth of the homer, and the ephah a tenth of the homer: according to the homer is its measurement.
The ephah and the bath is of one measure, for the bath to bear a tenth of the homer, and the ephah a tenth of the homer: according to the homer is its measurement. And, the shekel is twenty gerah: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels -- is your maneh. read more. This is the heave-offering that ye lift up; a sixth part of the ephah of a homer of wheat, also ye have given a sixth part of the ephah of a homer of barley, and the portion of oil, the bath of oil, a tenth part of the bath out of the cor, a homer of ten baths -- for ten baths are a homer;
and the portion of oil, the bath of oil, a tenth part of the bath out of the cor, a homer of ten baths -- for ten baths are a homer;
And I buy her to me for fifteen silverlings, and a homer and a letech of barley;
And I buy her to me for fifteen silverlings, and a homer and a letech of barley;
And I buy her to me for fifteen silverlings, and a homer and a letech of barley;
And Jonah beginneth to go in to the city a journey of one day, and proclaimeth, and saith, 'Yet forty days -- and Nineveh is overturned.'
nor do they light a lamp, and put it under the measure, but on the lamp-stand, and it shineth to all those in the house;
Another simile spake he to them: 'The reign of the heavens is like to leaven, which a woman having taken, hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.'
and, coming from the market-place, if they do not baptize themselves, they do not eat; and many other things there are that they received to hold, baptisms of cups, and pots, and brazen vessels, and couches.
and, having supposed him to be in the company, they went a day's journey, and were seeking him among the kindred and among the acquaintances,
'Afterward to another he said, And thou, how much dost thou owe? and he said, A hundred cors of wheat; and he saith to him, Take thy bill, and write eighty.
and having called ten servants of his own, he gave to them ten pounds, and said unto them, Do business -- till I come;
And, lo, two of them were going on during that day to a village, distant sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, the name of which is Emmaus,
And there were there six water-jugs of stone, placed according to the purifying of the Jews, holding each two or three measures.
Mary, therefore, having taken a pound of ointment of spikenard, of great price, anointed the feet of Jesus and did wipe with her hair his feet, and the house was filled from the fragrance of the ointment.
Mary, therefore, having taken a pound of ointment of spikenard, of great price, anointed the feet of Jesus and did wipe with her hair his feet, and the house was filled from the fragrance of the ointment.
and Nicodemus also came -- who came unto Jesus by night at the first -- bearing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, as it were, a hundred pounds.
Then did they return to Jerusalem from the mount that is called of Olives, that is near Jerusalem, a sabbath's journey;
and I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, 'A measure of wheat for a denary, and three measures of barley for a denary,' and 'The oil and the wine thou mayest not injure.'
and great hail (as of talent weight) doth come down out of the heaven upon men, and men did speak evil of God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague is very great.
and he measured its wall, an hundred forty-four cubits, the measure of a man, that is, of the messenger;
Morish
In the O.T. money was weighed. The first recorded transaction in scripture is that of Abraham buying the field of Ephron the Hittite for four hundred shekels of silver, which Abraham 'weighed' to Ephron. Ge 23:15-16. The shekel here was a weight. Judas Maccabaeus, about B.C. 141, was the first to coin Jewish money, though there existed doubtless from of old pieces of silver of known value, which passed from hand to hand without being always weighed. Herod the Great coined money with his name on it; and Herod Agrippa had some coins; but after that the coins in Palestine were Roman. The following tables must be taken approximately only: the authorities differ.
WEIGHTS.
The principal weights in use were as follows with their approximate equivalents:
AVOIRDUPOIS.
Pounds ozs. drams.
Gerah (1/20 of a shekel)
See Verses Found in Dictionary
and this is that which thou dost with it: three hundred cubits is the length of the ark, fifty cubits its breadth, and thirty cubits its height;
My lord, hear me: the land -- four hundred shekels of silver; between me and thee, what is it? -- thy dead bury.'
My lord, hear me: the land -- four hundred shekels of silver; between me and thee, what is it? -- thy dead bury.' And Abraham hearkeneth unto Ephron, and Abraham weigheth to Ephron the silver which he hath spoken of in the ears of the sons of Heth, four hundred silver shekels, passing with the merchant.
And Abraham hearkeneth unto Ephron, and Abraham weigheth to Ephron the silver which he hath spoken of in the ears of the sons of Heth, four hundred silver shekels, passing with the merchant.
And it cometh to pass when the camels have finished drinking, that the man taketh a golden ring (whose weight is a bekah), and two bracelets for her hands (whose weight is ten bekahs of gold),
and he buyeth the portion of the field where he hath stretched out his tent, from the hand of the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem, for a hundred kesitah;
and he buyeth the portion of the field where he hath stretched out his tent, from the hand of the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem, for a hundred kesitah;
This is the thing which Jehovah hath commanded: Gather of it each according to his eating, an omer for a poll; and the number of your persons, take ye each for those in his tent.'
and the omer is a tenth of the ephah.
of a talent of pure gold he doth make it, with all these vessels.
it is square, doubled, a span its length, and a span its breadth.
and a tenth deal of fine flour, mixed with beaten oil, a fourth part of a hin, and a libation, a fourth part of a hin, of wine, is for the one lamb.
and a tenth deal of fine flour, mixed with beaten oil, a fourth part of a hin, and a libation, a fourth part of a hin, of wine, is for the one lamb.
This they do give, every one passing over unto those numbered, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs); half a shekel is the heave-offering to Jehovah;
This they do give, every one passing over unto those numbered, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs); half a shekel is the heave-offering to Jehovah;
This they do give, every one passing over unto those numbered, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs); half a shekel is the heave-offering to Jehovah;
a bekah for a poll (half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary,) for every one who is passing over unto those numbered, from a son of twenty years and upwards, for six hundred thousand, and three thousand, and five hundred and fifty.
And the brass of the wave-offering is seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels;
And if his hand reach not to two turtle-doves, or to two young pigeons, then he hath brought in his offering -- he who hath sinned -- a tenth of an ephah of flour for a sin-offering; he putteth no oil on it, nor doth he put on it frankincense, for it is a sin-offering,
And on the eighth day he taketh two lambs, perfect ones, and one ewe-lamb, daughter of a year, a perfect one, and three tenth deals of flour for a present, mixed with oil, and one log of oil. 'And the priest who is cleansing hath caused the man who is to be cleansed to stand with them before Jehovah, at the opening of the tent of meeting, read more. and the priest hath taken the one he-lamb, and hath brought it near for a guilt-offering, also the log of oil, and hath waved them -- a wave offering before Jehovah. And he hath slaughtered the lamb in the place where he slaughtereth the sin-offering and the burnt-offering, in the holy place; for like the sin-offering the guilt-offering is to the priest; it is most holy. 'And the priest hath taken of the blood of the guilt-offering, and the priest hath put on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot; and the priest hath taken of the log of oil, and hath poured on the left palm of the priest, and the priest hath dipped his right finger in the oil which is on his left palm, and hath sprinkled of the oil with his finger seven times before Jehovah. And of the residue of the oil which is on his palm, the priest putteth on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot, on the blood of the guilt-offering; and the remnant of the oil which is on the palm of the priest, he putteth on the head of him who is to be cleansed, and the priest hath made atonement for him before Jehovah. 'And the priest hath made the sin-offering, and hath made atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness, and afterwards he doth slaughter the burnt-offering; and the priest hath caused the burnt-offering to ascend, also the present, on the altar, and the priest hath made atonement for him, and he hath been clean. And if he is poor, and his hand is not reaching these things, then he hath taken one lamb -- a guilt-offering, for a wave-offering, to make atonement for him, and one-tenth deal of flour mixed with oil for a present, and a log of oil, and two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, which his hand reacheth to, and one hath been a sin-offering, and the one a burnt-offering; and he hath brought them in on the eighth day for his cleansing unto the priest, unto the opening of the tent of meeting, before Jehovah. And the priest hath taken the lamb of the guilt-offering, and the log of oil, and the priest hath waved them -- a wave-offering before Jehovah;
'And if of the field of his possession a man sanctify to Jehovah, then hath thy valuation been according to its seed; a homer of barley-seed at fifty shekels of silver;
And all thy valuation is by the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs is the shekel.
thou hast even taken five shekels a-piece by the poll -- by the shekel of the sanctuary thou takest; twenty gerahs the shekel is;
And their ransomed ones from a son of a month, thou dost ransom with thy valuation, of silver, five shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary, twenty gerahs it is.
and I see among the spoil a goodly robe of Shinar, and two hundred shekels of silver, and one wedge of gold, whose weight is fifty shekels, and I desire them, and take them; and lo, they are hid in the earth, in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.'
And the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up out of Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in the portion of the field which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor father of Shechem, with a hundred kesitah; and they are to the sons of Joseph for an inheritance.
And the first smiting which Jonathan and the bearer of his weapons have smitten is of about twenty men, in about half a furrow of a yoke of a field,
And Abigail hasteth, and taketh two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep, prepared, and five measures of roasted corn, and a hundred bunches of raisins, and two hundred bunches of figs, and setteth them on the asses.
And its thickness is an handbreadth, and its edge as the work of the edge of a cup, flowers of lilies; two thousand baths it containeth.
And its thickness is an handbreadth, and its edge as the work of the edge of a cup, flowers of lilies; two thousand baths it containeth.
and three hundred shields of alloyed gold -- three pounds of gold go up on the one shield; and the king putteth them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
and three hundred shields of alloyed gold -- three pounds of gold go up on the one shield; and the king putteth them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
and there is a great famine in Samaria, and lo, they are laying siege to it, till the head of an ass is at eighty silverlings, and a forth of the cab of dovesdung at five silverlings.
and there is a great famine in Samaria, and lo, they are laying siege to it, till the head of an ass is at eighty silverlings, and a forth of the cab of dovesdung at five silverlings.
And they give for the service of the house of God, of gold -- talents five thousand, and drams a myriad; and of silver -- talents ten thousand, and of brass -- a myriad and eight thousand talents; and of iron -- a hundred thousand talents;
and three hundred shields of alloyed gold, three hundred shekels of gold he causeth to go up on the one shield, and the king putteth them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
according to their power they have given to the treasure of the work; of gold, drams six myriads and a thousand, and of silver, pounds five thousand, and of priests' coats, a hundred.
Unto silver a hundred talents, and unto wheat a hundred cors, and unto wine a hundred baths, and unto oil a hundred baths, and salt without reckoning;
And of the heads of the fathers they have given to the treasure of the work, of gold, drams two myriads, and of silver, pounds two thousand and two hundred. And that which the rest of the people have given is of gold, drams two myriads, and of silver, pounds two thousand, and of priests coats, sixty and seven.
And come unto him do all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all his former acquaintances, and they eat bread with him in his house, and bemoan him, and comfort him concerning all the evil that Jehovah had brought upon him, and they gave to him each one kesitah, and each one ring of gold.
For ten acres of vineyard do yield one bath, And an homer of seed yieldeth an ephah.
As to the pillars, eighteen cubits is the height of the one pillar, and a cord of twelve cubits doth compass it, and its thickness is four fingers hollow.
And He bringeth me in thither, and lo, a man, his appearance as the appearance of brass, and a thread of flax in his hand, and a measuring-reed, and he is standing at the gate, and the man speaketh unto me: 'Son of man, see with thine eyes, And with thine ears hear, And set thy heart to all that I am shewing thee, For, in order to shew it thee, Thou hast been brought in hither, Declare all that thou art seeing to the house of Israel.' read more. And lo, a wall on the outside of the house all round about, and in the hand of the man a measuring-reed, six cubits by a cubit and a handbreadth, and he measureth the breadth of the building one reed, and the height one reed. And he cometh in unto the gate whose front is eastward, and he goeth up by its steps, and he measureth the threshold of the gate one reed broad, even the one threshold one reed broad, and the little chamber one reed long and one reed broad, and between the little chambers five cubits, and the threshold of the gate, from the side of the porch of the gate from within, one reed. And he measureth the porch of the gate from within one reed,
And I have looked at the house, the height all round about: the foundations of the side-chambers are the fulness of the reed, six cubits by the joining.
And, the shekel is twenty gerah: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels -- is your maneh.
And, the shekel is twenty gerah: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels -- is your maneh.
And, the shekel is twenty gerah: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels -- is your maneh.
and the portion of oil, the bath of oil, a tenth part of the bath out of the cor, a homer of ten baths -- for ten baths are a homer;
And I buy her to me for fifteen silverlings, and a homer and a letech of barley;
Saying, When doth the new moon pass, And we sell ground corn? And the sabbath, and we open out pure corn? To make little the ephah, And to make great the shekel, And to use perversely balances of deceit.
And lo, a cake of lead lifted up; and this is a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah.'
nor do they light a lamp, and put it under the measure, but on the lamp-stand, and it shineth to all those in the house;
verily I say to thee, thou mayest not come forth thence till that thou mayest pay the last farthing.
'And whoever shall impress thee one mile, go with him two,
'And who of you, being anxious, is able to add to his age one cubit?
'Are not two sparrows sold for an assar? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father;
Another simile spake he to them: 'The reign of the heavens is like to leaven, which a woman having taken, hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.'
And they having come to Capernaum, those receiving the didrachms came near to Peter, and said, 'Your teacher -- doth he not pay the didrachms?' He saith, 'Yes.'
but, that we may not cause them to stumble, having gone to the sea, cast a hook, and the fish that hath come up first take thou up, and having opened its mouth, thou shalt find a stater, that having taken, give to them for me and thee.'
and he having begun to take account, there was brought near to him one debtor of a myriad of talents,
and having agreed with the workmen for a denary a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
and he who did receive the one, having gone away, digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.
'What are ye willing to give me, and I will deliver him up to you?' and they weighed out to him thirty silverlings,
and, coming from the market-place, if they do not baptize themselves, they do not eat; and many other things there are that they received to hold, baptisms of cups, and pots, and brazen vessels, and couches.
for, having put away the command of God, ye hold the tradition of men, baptisms of pots and cups; and many other such like things ye do.'
and having come, a poor widow did put in two mites, which are a farthing.
and who of you, being anxious, is able to add to his age one cubit?
'Or what woman having ten drachms, if she may lose one drachm, doth not light a lamp, and sweep the house, and seek carefully till that she may find?
'Or what woman having ten drachms, if she may lose one drachm, doth not light a lamp, and sweep the house, and seek carefully till that she may find? and having found, she doth call together the female friends and the neighbours, saying, Rejoice with me, for I found the drachm that I lost.
and having found, she doth call together the female friends and the neighbours, saying, Rejoice with me, for I found the drachm that I lost.
and he said, A hundred baths of oil; and he said to him, Take thy bill, and having sat down write fifty. 'Afterward to another he said, And thou, how much dost thou owe? and he said, A hundred cors of wheat; and he saith to him, Take thy bill, and write eighty.
and having called ten servants of his own, he gave to them ten pounds, and said unto them, Do business -- till I come; and his citizens were hating him, and did send an embassy after him, saying, We do not wish this one to reign over us. read more. 'And it came to pass, on his coming back, having taken the kingdom, that he commanded these servants to be called to him, to whom he gave the money, that he might know what any one had done in business. 'And the first came near, saying, Sir, thy pound did gain ten pounds; and he said to him, Well done, good servant, because in a very little thou didst become faithful, be having authority over ten cities. 'And the second came, saying, Sir, thy pound made five pounds; and he said also to this one, And thou, become thou over five cities. 'And another came, saying, Sir, lo, thy pound, that I had lying away in a napkin; for I was afraid of thee, because thou art an austere man; thou takest up what thou didst not lay down, and reapest what thou didst not sow. 'And he saith to him, Out of thy mouth I will judge thee, evil servant: thou knewest that I am an austere man, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow! and wherefore didst thou not give my money to the bank, and I, having come, with interest might have received it? And to those standing by he said, Take from him the pound, and give to him having the ten pounds -- (and they said to him, Sir, he hath ten pounds) --
And, lo, two of them were going on during that day to a village, distant sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, the name of which is Emmaus,
And there were there six water-jugs of stone, placed according to the purifying of the Jews, holding each two or three measures.
Mary, therefore, having taken a pound of ointment of spikenard, of great price, anointed the feet of Jesus and did wipe with her hair his feet, and the house was filled from the fragrance of the ointment.
and Nicodemus also came -- who came unto Jesus by night at the first -- bearing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, as it were, a hundred pounds.
and the other disciples came by the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but as it were about two hundred cubits off, dragging the net of the fishes;
Then did they return to Jerusalem from the mount that is called of Olives, that is near Jerusalem, a sabbath's journey;
and having sounded they found twenty fathoms, and having gone a little farther, and again having sounded, they found fifteen fathoms,
and I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, 'A measure of wheat for a denary, and three measures of barley for a denary,' and 'The oil and the wine thou mayest not injure.'
and I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, 'A measure of wheat for a denary, and three measures of barley for a denary,' and 'The oil and the wine thou mayest not injure.'
and great hail (as of talent weight) doth come down out of the heaven upon men, and men did speak evil of God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague is very great.
and he measured its wall, an hundred forty-four cubits, the measure of a man, that is, of the messenger;
Smith
Weights and Measures.
A. WEIGHTS. --The general principle of the present inquiry is to give the evidence of the monuments the preference on all doubtful points. All ancient Greek systems of weight were derived, either directly or indirectly, from an eastern source. The older systems of ancient Greece and Persia were the AEginetan, the Attic, the Babylonian and the Euboic.
1. The AEginetan talent is stated to have contained 60 minae, 6000 drachme.
2. The Attic talent is the standard weight introduced by Solon.
3. The Babylonian talent may be determined from existing weights found by. Mr. Layard at Nineveh. Pollux makes it equal to 7000 Attic drachms.
4. The Euboic talent though bearing a Greek name, is rightly held to have been originally an eastern system. The proportion of the Euboic talent to the Babylonian was probably as 60 to 72, or 5 to
6. Taking the Babylonian maneh at 7992 grs., we obtain 399,600 for the Euboic talent. The principal if not the only Persian gold coin is the daric, weighing about 129 grs.
5. The Hebrew talent or talents and divisions. A talent of silver is mentioned in Exodus, which contained 3000 shekels, distinguished as "the holy shekel," or "shekel of the sanctuary." The gold talent contained 100 manehs, 10,000 shekels. The silver talent contained 3000 shekels, 6000 bekas, 60,000 gerahs. The significations of the names of the Hebrew weights must be here stated. The chief unit was the SHEKEL (i.e. weight), called also the holy shekel or shekel of the sanctuary; subdivided into the beka (i.e. half) or half-shekel, and the gerah (i.e. a grain or beka). The chief multiple, or higher unit, was the kikkar (i.e. circle or globe, probably for an aggregate sum), translated in our version, after the LXX., TALENT; (i.e. part, portion or number), a word used in Babylonian and in the Greek hena or mina.
See Shekel
See Talent
(1) The relations of these weights, as usually: employed for the standard of weighing silver, and their absolute values, determined from the extant silver coins, and confirmed from other sources, were as follows, in grains exactly and in avoirdupois weight approximately: (2) For gold a different shekel was used, probably of foreign introduction. Its value has been calculated at from 129 to 132 grains. The former value assimilates it to the Persian daric of the Babylonian standard. The talent of this system was just double that of the silver standard; if was divided into 100 manehs, and each maneh into 100 shekels, as follows: (3) There appears to have been a third standard for copper, namely, a shekel four times as heavy as the gold shekel (or 528 grains), 1500 of which made up the copper talent of 792,000 grains. It seems to have been subdivided, in the coinage, into halves (of 264 grains), quarters (of 132 grains) and sixths (of 88 grains). B. MEASURES.--
See Measures
I. MEASURES OF LENGTH. --In the Hebrew, as in every other system, these measures are of two classes: length, in the ordinary sense, for objects whose size we wish to determine, and distance, or itinerary measures, and the two are connected by some definite relation, more or less simple, between their units. The measures of the former class have been universally derived, in the first instance, from the parts of the human body; but it is remarkable that, in the Hebrew system, the only part used for this purpose is the hand and fore-arm, to the exclusion of the foot, which was the chief unit of the western nations. Hence arises the difficulty of determining the ratio of the foot to the CUBIT, (The Hebrew word for the cubit (ammah) appears to have been of Egyptian origin, as some of the measures of capacity (the hin and ephah) certainly were.) which appears as the chief Oriental unit from the very building of Noah's ark.
See Measures
See Cubit
The Hebrew lesser measures were the finger's breadth,
only; the palm or handbreadth,
used metaphorically in
the span, i.e. the full stretch between the tips of the thumb and the little finger.
and figuratively
The data for determining the actual length of the Mosaic cubit involve peculiar difficulties, and absolute certainty seems unattainable. The following, however, seem the most probable conclusions: First, that three cubits were used in the times of the Hebrew monarchy, namely : (1) The cubit of a man,
De 3:11
or the common cubit of Canaan (in contradistinction to the Mosaic cubit) of the Chaldean standard; (2) The old Mosaic or legal cubit, a handbreadth larger than the first, and agreeing with the smaller Egyptian cubit; (3) The new cubit, which was still larger, and agreed with the larger Egyptian cubit, of about 20.8 inches, used in the Nilometer. Second, that the ordinary cubit of the Bible did not come up to the full length of the cubit of other countries. The reed (kaneh), for measuring buildings (like the Roman decempeda), was to 6 cubits. It occurs only in Ezekiel
The values given In the following table are to be accepted with reservation, for want of greater certainty:
2. Of measures of distance the smallest is the pace, and the largest the day's journey. (a) The pace,
whether it be a single, like our pace, or double, like the Latin passus, is defined by nature within certain limits, its usual length being about 30 inches for the former and 5 feet for the latter. There is some reason to suppose that even before the Roman measurement of the roads of Palestine, the Jews had a mile of 1000 paces, alluded to in
It is said to have been single or double, according to the length of the pace; and hence the peculiar force of our Lord's saying: "Whosoever shall compel thee [as a courier] to go a mile, go with him twain" --put the most liberal construction on the demand. (b) The day's journey was the most usual method of calculating distances in travelling,
Ge 30:36; 31:23; Ex 3:18; 5:3; Nu 10:33; 11:31; 33:8; De 1:2; 1Ki 19:4; 2Ki 3:9; Jon 3:3
1 Macc. 5:24; 7:45; Tobit 6:1, though but one instance of it occurs in the New Testament
Lu 2:44
The ordinary day's journey among the Jews was 30 miles; but when they travelled in companies, only ten miles. Neapolis formed the first stage out of Jerusalem according to the former and Beeroth according to the latter computation, (a) The Sabbath day's journey of 2000 cubits,
is peculiar to the New Testament, and arose from a rabbinical restriction. It was founded on a universal, application of the prohibition given by Moses for a special occasion: "Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day."
An exception was allowed for the purpose of worshipping at the tabernacle; and, as 2000 cubits was the prescribed space to be kept between the ark and the people as well as the extent of the suburbs of the Levitical cities on every side,
this was taken for the length of a Sabbath-day's journey measured front the wall of the city in which the traveller lived. Computed from the value given above for the cubit, the Sabbath-day's journey would be just six tenths of a mile. (d) After the captivity the relations of the Jews to the Persians, Greeks and Romans caused the use, probably, of the parasang, and certainly of the stadium and the mile. Though the first is not mentioned in the Bible, if is well to exhibit the ratios of the three. The universal Greek standard, the stadium of 600 Greek feet, which was the length of the race-course at Olympia, occurs first in the Maccabees, and is common in the New Testament. Our version renders it furlong; it being, in fact, the eighth part of the Roman mile, as the furlong is of ours. 2 Macc. 11:5; 12:9,17,29;
Lu 24:13; Joh 6:19; 11:18; Re 14:20; 21:18
One measure remains to be mentioned. The fathom, used in sounding by the Alexandrian mariners in a voyage, is the Greek orguia, i.e. the full stretch of the two arms from tip to tip of the middle finger, which is about equal to the height, and in a man of full stature is six feet. For estimating area, and especially land there is no evidence that the Jews used any special system of square measure
See Verses Found in Dictionary
and this is that which thou dost with it: three hundred cubits is the length of the ark, fifty cubits its breadth, and thirty cubits its height; a window dost thou make for the ark, and unto a cubit thou dost restrain it from above; and the opening of the ark thou dost put in its side, -- lower, second, and third stories dost thou make it.
fifteen cubits upwards have the waters become mighty, and the mountains are covered;
And Abraham hasteth towards the tent, unto Sarah, and saith, 'Hasten three measures of flour-meal, knead, and make cakes;'
and setteth a journey of three days between himself and Jacob; and Jacob is feeding the rest of the flock of Laban.
and he taketh his brethren with him, and pursueth after him a journey of seven days, and overtaketh him in the mount of Gilead.
'And they have hearkened to thy voice, and thou hast entered, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye have said unto him, Jehovah, God of the Hebrews, hath met with us; and now, let us go, we pray thee, a journey of three days into the wilderness, and we sacrifice to Jehovah our God.
And they say, 'The God of the Hebrews hath met with us, let us go, we pray thee, a journey of three days into the wilderness, and we sacrifice to Jehovah our God, lest He meet us with pestilence or with sword.'
see, because Jehovah hath given to you the sabbath, therefore He is giving to you on the sixth day bread of two days; abide ye each in his place, no one doth go out from his place on the seventh day.'
and the omer is a tenth of the ephah.
and hast made for it a border of a handbreadth round about, and hast made a crown of gold to its border round about.
it is square, doubled, a span its length, and a span its breadth.
and a tenth deal of fine flour, mixed with beaten oil, a fourth part of a hin, and a libation, a fourth part of a hin, of wine, is for the one lamb.
and cassia five hundred, by the shekel of the sanctuary, and olive oil a hin;
And if his hand reach not to two turtle-doves, or to two young pigeons, then he hath brought in his offering -- he who hath sinned -- a tenth of an ephah of flour for a sin-offering; he putteth no oil on it, nor doth he put on it frankincense, for it is a sin-offering,
This is an offering of Aaron and of his sons, which they bring near to Jehovah in the day of his being anointed; a tenth of the ephah of flour for a continual present, half of it in the morning, and half of it in the evening;
And on the eighth day he taketh two lambs, perfect ones, and one ewe-lamb, daughter of a year, a perfect one, and three tenth deals of flour for a present, mixed with oil, and one log of oil.
'And if of the field of his possession a man sanctify to Jehovah, then hath thy valuation been according to its seed; a homer of barley-seed at fifty shekels of silver;
Then hath the man brought in his wife unto the priest, and he hath brought in her offering for her, a tenth of the ephah of barley meal, he doth not pour on it oil, nor doth he put on it frankincense, for it is a present of jealousy, a present of memorial, causing remembrance of iniquity.
And they journey from the mount of Jehovah a journey of three days; and the ark of the covenant of Jehovah is journeying before them the journey of three days, to spy out for them a resting-place;
And a spirit hath journeyed from Jehovah, and cutteth off quails from the sea, and leaveth by the camp, as a day's journey here, and as a day's journey there, round about the camp, and about two cubits, on the face of the land. And the people rise all that day, and all the night, and all the day after, and gather the quails -- he who hath least hath gathered ten homers -- and they spread them out for themselves round about the camp.
'And he who is bringing near his offering to Jehovah hath brought near a present of flour, a tenth deal, mixed with a fourth of the hin of oil;
and wine for a libation, a third part of the hin, thou dost bring near -- a sweet fragrance to Jehovah. 'And when thou makest a son of the herd a burnt-offering or a sacrifice, at separating a vow or peace-offerings to Jehovah,
and a tenth of the ephah of flour for a present, mixed with beaten oil, a fourth of the hin;
And they journey from Pi-Hahiroth, and pass over through the midst of the sea, into the wilderness, and go a journey of three days in the wilderness of Etham, and encamp in Marah.
And the suburbs of the cities which ye give to the Levites are, from the wall of the city and without, a thousand cubits round about. And ye have measured from the outside of the city, the east quarter, two thousand by the cubit, and the south quarter, two thousand by the cubit, and the west quarter, two thousand by the cubit, and the north quarter, two thousand by the cubit; and the city is in the midst; this is to them the suburbs of the cities.
And ye have measured from the outside of the city, the east quarter, two thousand by the cubit, and the south quarter, two thousand by the cubit, and the west quarter, two thousand by the cubit, and the north quarter, two thousand by the cubit; and the city is in the midst; this is to them the suburbs of the cities.
eleven days' from Horeb, the way of mount Seir, unto Kadesh-Barnea.
for only Og king of Bashan had been left of the remnant of the Rephaim; lo, his bedstead is a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the sons of Ammon? nine cubits its length, and four cubits its breadth, by the cubit of a man.
And Gideon hath gone in, and prepareth a kid of the goats, and of an ephah of flour unleavened things; the flesh he hath put in a basket, and the broth he hath put in a pot, and he bringeth out unto Him, unto the place of the oak, and bringeth it nigh.
And she gleaneth in the field till the evening, and beateth out that which she hath gleaned, and it is about an ephah of barley;
And it cometh to pass, when those bearing the ark of Jehovah have stepped six steps, that he sacrificeth an ox and a fatling.
And the provision of Solomon for one day is thirty cors of flour, and sixty cors of meal;
and Solomon hath given to Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat, food for his house, and twenty cors of beaten oil; thus doth Solomon give to Hiram year by year.
And its thickness is an handbreadth, and its edge as the work of the edge of a cup, flowers of lilies; two thousand baths it containeth.
And he maketh ten lavers of brass; forty baths doth the one laver contain, four by the cubit is the one laver, one laver on the one base is to the ten bases;
and there is a great famine in Samaria, and lo, they are laying siege to it, till the head of an ass is at eighty silverlings, and a forth of the cab of dovesdung at five silverlings.
Unto silver a hundred talents, and unto wheat a hundred cors, and unto wine a hundred baths, and unto oil a hundred baths, and salt without reckoning;
Unto silver a hundred talents, and unto wheat a hundred cors, and unto wine a hundred baths, and unto oil a hundred baths, and salt without reckoning;
Lo, handbreadths Thou hast made my days, And mine age is as nothing before Thee, Only, all vanity is every man set up. Selah.
For ten acres of vineyard do yield one bath, And an homer of seed yieldeth an ephah.
For ten acres of vineyard do yield one bath, And an homer of seed yieldeth an ephah.
Who hath measured in the hollow of his hand the waters? And the heavens by a span hath meted out, And comprehended in a measure the dust of the earth, And hath weighed in scales the mountains, And the hills in a balance?
As to the pillars, eighteen cubits is the height of the one pillar, and a cord of twelve cubits doth compass it, and its thickness is four fingers hollow.
And water by measure thou dost drink, a sixth part of the hin; from time to time thou dost drink it.
And lo, a wall on the outside of the house all round about, and in the hand of the man a measuring-reed, six cubits by a cubit and a handbreadth, and he measureth the breadth of the building one reed, and the height one reed. And he cometh in unto the gate whose front is eastward, and he goeth up by its steps, and he measureth the threshold of the gate one reed broad, even the one threshold one reed broad, read more. and the little chamber one reed long and one reed broad, and between the little chambers five cubits, and the threshold of the gate, from the side of the porch of the gate from within, one reed. And he measureth the porch of the gate from within one reed,
and the gate of the inner court is southward, and he measureth from gate unto gate southward, a hundred cubits.
And I have looked at the house, the height all round about: the foundations of the side-chambers are the fulness of the reed, six cubits by the joining.
And I have looked at the house, the height all round about: the foundations of the side-chambers are the fulness of the reed, six cubits by the joining.
He hath measured the east side with the measuring-reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring-reed round about.
He hath measured the east side with the measuring-reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring-reed round about. He hath measured the north side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about.
He hath measured the north side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about. The south side he hath measured, five hundred reeds, with the measuring-reed.
The south side he hath measured, five hundred reeds, with the measuring-reed. He hath turned round unto the west side, he hath measured five hundred reeds with the measuring-reed.
He hath turned round unto the west side, he hath measured five hundred reeds with the measuring-reed. At the four sides he hath measured it, a wall is to it all round about, the length five hundred, and the breadth five hundred, to separate between the holy and the profane place.
And these are measures of the altar by cubits: The cubit is a cubit and a handbreadth, and the centre is a cubit, and a cubit the breadth; and its border on its edge round about is one span, and this is the upper part of the altar.
The ephah and the bath is of one measure, for the bath to bear a tenth of the homer, and the ephah a tenth of the homer: according to the homer is its measurement.
This is the heave-offering that ye lift up; a sixth part of the ephah of a homer of wheat, also ye have given a sixth part of the ephah of a homer of barley,
This is the heave-offering that ye lift up; a sixth part of the ephah of a homer of wheat, also ye have given a sixth part of the ephah of a homer of barley, and the portion of oil, the bath of oil, a tenth part of the bath out of the cor, a homer of ten baths -- for ten baths are a homer;
And the present is an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs a present, the gift of his hand, and of oil a hin for an ephah.
And with an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, he prepareth a present, and for the lambs as his hand attaineth, and of oil a hin for an ephah.
'And in feasts, and in appointed times, the present is an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and for lambs the gift of his hand, and of oil a hin for an ephah.
And a present thou dost make for it morning by morning, a sixth part of the ephah, and of oil a third part of the hin, to temper with the fine flour, a present to Jehovah, by a statute age-during -- continually;
And I buy her to me for fifteen silverlings, and a homer and a letech of barley;
nor do they light a lamp, and put it under the measure, but on the lamp-stand, and it shineth to all those in the house;
'And whoever shall impress thee one mile, go with him two,
Another simile spake he to them: 'The reign of the heavens is like to leaven, which a woman having taken, hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.'
And he said to them, 'Doth the lamp come that under the measure it may be put, or under the couch -- not that it may be put on the lamp-stand?
and, coming from the market-place, if they do not baptize themselves, they do not eat; and many other things there are that they received to hold, baptisms of cups, and pots, and brazen vessels, and couches.
for, having put away the command of God, ye hold the tradition of men, baptisms of pots and cups; and many other such like things ye do.'
And no one having lighted a lamp, doth put it in a secret place, nor under the measure, but on the lamp-stand, that those coming in may behold the light.
It is like leaven, which a woman, having taken, did hide in three measures of meal, till that all was leavened.'
'Afterward to another he said, And thou, how much dost thou owe? and he said, A hundred cors of wheat; and he saith to him, Take thy bill, and write eighty.
And, lo, two of them were going on during that day to a village, distant sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, the name of which is Emmaus,
And there were there six water-jugs of stone, placed according to the purifying of the Jews, holding each two or three measures.
And there were there six water-jugs of stone, placed according to the purifying of the Jews, holding each two or three measures.
having pushed onwards, therefore, about twenty-five or thirty furlongs, they behold Jesus walking on the sea, and coming nigh to the boat, and they were afraid;
And Bethany was nigh to Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off,
Then did they return to Jerusalem from the mount that is called of Olives, that is near Jerusalem, a sabbath's journey;
and I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, 'A measure of wheat for a denary, and three measures of barley for a denary,' and 'The oil and the wine thou mayest not injure.'
and I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, 'A measure of wheat for a denary, and three measures of barley for a denary,' and 'The oil and the wine thou mayest not injure.'
and trodden was the wine-press outside of the city, and blood did come forth out of the wine-press -- unto the bridles of the horses, a thousand, six hundred furlongs.
and the city lieth square, and the length of it is as great as the breadth; and he did measure the city with the reed -- furlongs twelve thousand; the length, and the breadth, and the height, of it are equal;
and the building of its wall was jasper, and the city is pure gold -- like to pure glass;