III. MEASURES OF LENGTH. The He brews, 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.
(1) Finger or Digit cts-bah'). the smallest measure among the Hebrews. and equal to the breadth of the human finger. The thick ness of the solid parts of Solomon's pillars was measured by fingers (Jer. lii:21).
(2) Handbreadth (Heb. ieh 'fakh, 2 Chron. iv:5; Ps. xxxix :5; to'fokh, Exod.
xxxvii :12; I Kings vii:26), was four digits, or the breadth of the four fingers—from three to three and a half inches.
(3) Span (Fick zeh'reth ; only in Lam. 20, tip-pookh')• this 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.
(4) Cubit (lich. am-maw', Gr. wijxvs, pay'khoos, the forearm), an important and con stant measure among the Hebrews (Exod. xxv: to, sq.; 1 Kings vii :24. sq.; Ezek. x1:5, etc.), and other ancient nations. It was the distance from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger, or about eighteen inches. The different expressions used in the Old Testament about this measure— such as "after the cubit of a man" (Dcut. iii :it ; "after the first measure" (2 Chron. iii:3); "a great cubit" (Ezck. xli :8)—show that it varied.
(5) Pace (Het). isah'ad, 2 Sam. vi:13), a step. and so translated elsewhere. It would be about thirty-six inches and thus correspond to the English yard.
(6) Measuring Reed (Heb. kaw-nelt', reed), properly the calamus, or sweet cane. It was used as a measure (Ezek. x1:3, 5; xlii :15, 16). Its length was six times a cubit plus a handbreadth (Ezek. x1:5) or from ten to eleven feet. The measuring-line (Zech. ii:1) was a hundred and forty-six feet.
(7) Furlong (Gr. arddtov, stad'ee-on, estab lished), and so a stated distance (Luke xxiv:t3; John vi:19: Rev. xiv :20). This was a Greek measure, and nearly the same as at present—viz., one-eighth of a mile, or forty rods.
(8) Mile (Gr. p.aLov, mil'-ce-on), mentioned only once (Matt. v: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 i or shorter, in accordance with the longer or shorter pace in use in the various parts of the country.
(9) Sabbath Day's Journey (Gr. cafifldrou 686s, sab-bat'oo hod-os, Acts i :12), was about seven eighths of a mile, and the term denoted the dis tance which Jewish tradition said one might travel without a violation of the law (Exod. xvi :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.
(10) A Little Way (Heb.)",? kaPrahl haw-aw'rets, Gen. xxxv :16; xlviii :7 ; 2 Kings v: 19). The expression appears to indicate some definite distance, but we are unable to state with precision what that distance was. The Syriac and Persian versions render the term by parasang. a well-known Persian measure, generally esti mated at 3o stades (Herod. ii:6; v:53), or from to 4 English miles, but sometimes at a larger amount, even up to 6o stades (Strab. xi:51S). The only conclusion to he drawn from the Bible is that the eibrath did not exceed and prohahlv equaled the distance between Bethlehem and Rachel's burial which is traditionally identi fied with a spot IX miles north of the town.
(1 1) Day's Journey (Heh. 1141s 17, deh'rek yome). This was the most usual method of cal culating distances in traveling (Gen. xxx :36; xxxi :23; Exod. :18; v :3 : Num. X ;33 ; Xi :31 ; xxxiii :8; Deut. i :2; 1 Kings xix :4; 2 Kings iii :9; Jonah iii :3: 1 11Iacc. v :24 : vii :45: Tobit vi :t 1. though but one instance of :t occurs in the New Testament (Luke ii:44). It probably indicated no certain distance, but was taken to be the or dinary distance which a person in the East travels on foot, or on horseback or camel, in the prosecu tion of a journey. The ordinary day's journey among the Jews was 3o miles; but when they traveled in companies only to miles. (See TABLE OF MEASURES OF LENGTH, page 42, Appendix.) (12) Meteyard (Heb. mid-dant, exten sion), a general term for measure.