A just weight is His delight
Turn cubits, shekels, ephahs, baths, and coins into measures you can picture, and read the verse where each one appears.
Pick a measure
Hebrew length was reckoned from the body. The cubit (forearm) was the anchor; everything else is a fraction or multiple of it.
Ancient measures varied by era and region, so these are scholarly approximations for study.
Where the Cubit appears
Elbow to fingertip, the standard measure (about 18 in). The ark, tabernacle, and temple are all reckoned in cubits.
"The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits."
Length reference table
Modern equivalents shown in meters (m). The bar shows each unit's relative size.
| Unit | Modern (~m) | Relative size | Verse |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finger (etzba)The smallest common length, a finger's breadth. One-quarter of a handbreadth, the base unit of the Hebrew scale. | 0.0188 m | Jeremiah 52:21 | |
| Handbreadth (tefach)The width of the palm at the base of the four fingers (four fingers). One-sixth of a cubit; the rim-thickness of the bronze Sea. | 0.075 m | Exodus 25:25 | |
| Span (zeret)The spread of the hand from thumb-tip to little-finger-tip, three handbreadths. Half a cubit; the size of the high priest's breastplate and of Goliath's reach over six cubits. | 0.2286 m | Exodus 28:16 | |
| Cubit (ammah)Elbow to fingertip, the standard measure (about 18 in). The ark, tabernacle, and temple are all reckoned in cubits. | 0.4572 m | Genesis 6:15 | |
| Long cubit (royal)The royal or 'long' cubit of a cubit plus a handbreadth (about 20.4 in), used for Ezekiel's visionary temple and likely Solomon's. | 0.5181 m | Ezekiel 43:13 | |
| Reed (qaneh)A measuring rod of six cubits, carried by the angelic guide who measured Ezekiel's temple. | 2.74 m | Ezekiel 40:5 | |
| Furlong (stadion)A Greek racecourse length, about 600 feet. Bethany lay fifteen furlongs from Jerusalem; the New Jerusalem measures twelve thousand. | 185 m | John 11:18 | |
| Sabbath day's journeyThe distance one might travel on the Sabbath, about two thousand cubits — roughly two-thirds of a mile. | 1,110 m | Acts 1:12 | |
| Mile (Roman)The Roman mile of a thousand paces (mille passus), about 4,860 feet. 'Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.' | 1,480 m | Matthew 5:41 |
About Biblical Unit Converter
Translate ancient biblical measures of length, weight, volume, and money into modern units — and back — with context on where each unit appears in Scripture.
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