Biblical weights and measures
Conversions | ||
| Bible | American/British | Metric |
| Weight | ||
| talent | 75 pounds | 34 kilograms |
| mina | 1.25 pounds | 0.6 kilogram |
| shekel (2 bekas) | 2/5 ounce | 11.5 grams |
| pim (2/3 shekel) | 1/3 ounce | 7.6 grams |
| bekah (10 gerahs) | 1/5 ounce | 5.5 grams |
| gerah | 1/50 ounce | 0.6 gram |
| Dry Capacity | ||
| cor (homer) (10 ephahs) | 6 bushels | 220 liters |
| lethek (5 ephahs) | 3 bushels | 110 liters |
| ephah (10 omers) | 3/5 bushel | 22 liters |
| seah (1/3 ephah) | 7 quarts | 7.3 liters |
| omer (1/10 ephah) | 2 quarts | 2 liters |
| cab (1/18 ephah) | 1 quart | 1 liter |
| Liquid Capacity | ||
| bath (1 ephah) | about 6 gallons | about 22 liters |
| hin (1/6 bath) | 4 quarts | 4 liters |
| log (1/72 bath) | 1/3 quart | 0.3 liter |
| Greek: μετρητής (metrétés), meaning: a measure About 72 Roman sextarii Mentioned in John 2:6 only — see: firkin |
about 8.75 gallons | 39.39 litres |
| Length | ||
| Common cubit | 18 inches | 0.5 meter |
| Hebrew short cubit | 17.5 | 44.5 cm |
| Egyptian cubit | 17.6 | 44.7 cm |
| Hebrew long cubit | 20.4 inches | 51.8 cm |
| Babylonian long cubit | 19.8 inches | 50.3 cm |
| Egyptian long cubit | 20.6 inches | 52.3 cm |
| Royal cubit | 19.8 to 20.6 inches | approx. 52 cm |
| span | 9 inches | 23 centimeters |
| handbreadth | 3 inches | 8 centimeters |
| measure | varies | varies |
| mile (Roman) | 1,618 yards | 1,479.4992 meters |
Note: These conversions of weights and measures are based upon the best, conservative information available to us from ancient sources. It is not possible to be precise and some ancient measures definitely vary.
SEE:
- bath
- bekah
- What is a Bushel? — The word “bushel” was originally used for a size of container itself, and later as a unit of measurement. This is a “British imperial and US customary unit of volume based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel is equal to 2 kennings (obsolete), 4 pecks, or 8 dry gallons, and was used mostly for agricultural products, such as wheat. In modern usage, the volume is nominal, with bushels denoting a mass defined differently for each commodity.”
- cab
- coin
- cor
- cubit
- deal
- ephah
- gerah
- handbreadth
- homer
- maneh
- measure
- mile
- omer
- pieces
- seah
- shalish of land
- shekel
- talent
- tenth deal
- Money in Bible times
Article Version: April 27, 2022