Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
[Weights And Measures AND MEASURES]
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
MEASURES and WEIGHTS. The Jewish law contains two precepts respecting weights and measures. The first, Lev 19:35-36, refers to the standards kept in the sanctuary, and the second, Deut 25:13-15, to copies of them kept by every family for its own use. The models or standards of the weights and measures preserved in the temple were destroyed with the sacred edifice, and afterward the measures and weights of the people among whom the Jews dwelt were adopted; which, of course, adds to the perplexities of the subject. I. Measures of Length.
- The Hebrews, like all other ancient nations, took the standard of their measures of length from the human body. They made use, however, only of the finger, the hand, and the arm, not of the foot or the pace. The handbreadth or palm, 1 Kgs 7:26, was four digits, or the breadth of the four fingers - from three to three and a half inches. A span. Lam 2:20, which expresses the distance across the hand from the extremity of the thumb to the extremity of the little finger, when they are stretched as far apart as possible, say nine to ten inches.
A cubit, the distance from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger, or about eighteen inches. T. about this measure — such as "after the cubit of a man," Deut 3:11; "after the first measure," 2 Chr 3:3; "a great cubit," Eze 41:8 — show that it varied. A fathom, Acts 27:28, was from six to six and a half feet. The measuring-reed,Eze 42:16, comprised six cubits, or from ten to eleven feet, and the measuring-line, Zech 2:1, a hundred and forty-six feet. The furlong, Luke 24:13, was a Greek measure, and nearly the same as at present — viz., one-eighth of a mile, or forty rods.
The mile, mentioned only once. Matt 5:41, belonged to the Roman system of measurement, as stadium to the Greek. The Roman mile was one thousand six hundred and twelve yards. The Jewish mile was longer or shorter, in accordance with the longer or shorter pace in use in the various parts of the country. The Sabbath day's journey, Acts 1:12, was about seven-eighths of a mile, and the term denoted the distance which Jewish tradition said one might travel without a violation of the law. Ex 16:29.
It is supposed that this distance extended first from the tabernacle to the remotest section of the camp, and afterward from the temple to the remotest parts of the holy city. The term a day's journey. Num 11:31; Luke 2:44, probably indicated no certain distance, but was taken to be the ordinary distance which a person in the East travels on foot, or on horseback or camel, in the prosecution of a journey — about twenty miles.