Weights and Measures

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Weights and Measures

Excerpt from the Lexham Bible Dictionary, the most advanced Bible dictionary.

An overview of units of weight and measurement used in the Bible.

Lexham Bible Dictionary

The most advanced Bible Dictionary

The most advanced Bible dictionary as a part of Biblia Plus, which includes everything you need to take your Bible study to the next level. For less than $1 a week, you'll get devotionals, Bible study guides, thematic studies, and much more!

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Dictionaries

The Lexham Bible Dictionary

Weights and Measures

Weights and Measures An overview of units of weight and measurement used in the Bible.

The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary

Weights and Measures

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. The origin of weights and measures probably goes back into the paleolithic period, long before people planted grain and herded animals, but about such matters our knowledge is minimal.A. Overview of Metrology1. Near Eastern Metrology in General2. Mesopotamian Metrology3. Egyptian

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible

Weights and Measures

Weights and Measures. Units of measure in the ancient world were largely based on practical standards: the length of an arm, a day’s journey, how much a donkey could carry, and so forth. While this was a convenient system, it also suffered from a lack of standardization. Some arms were longer than others,

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised

Weights and Measures

Weights and Measures The use of weights and measures is as old as civilization, since common standards of length, volume, area, and weight must be used in all human cooperative projects, from building a house to sowing a plot of land. The more complex the society and the greater its extent, the more

Tyndale Bible Dictionary

Weights and Measures

WEIGHTS AND MEASURESPreview•Introduction•Weight Measures•Linear Measures in the Old Testament•Linear Measures in the New Testament•Capacity (Dry Measure) in the Old Testament•Capacity (Dry Measure) in the New Testament•Liquid Measures in the Old Testament•Liquid Measures in the New Testament

The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated)

Weights and Measures

weights and measures. The biblical system of weights and measures can be reconstructed, at least tentatively, from three sources: references in the surviving literature of Egypt and Mesopotamia, from which systems used in the Levant were borrowed; scattered references in the Bible to local practices;

The Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia

Weights, Measures, and Coins

WEIGHTS, MEASURES, AND COINS. In biblical times statements of weight or measure were necessarily approximate. Handfuls, the flight of an arrow, a day’s journey, and parts of the body such as the finger, the palm, and the span constituted units of measurement. Weights were judged by hand or with portable

The New Bible Dictionary, Third Edition

Weights and Measures

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.1. In the Old Testament1. IN THE OLD TESTAMENTMetrology, an exact science, requires legal sanction to enforce the authority granted to any particular system. In the ancient Near East standards varied between districts and cities, and there is no evidence that Israel had or used

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible

Weights and Measures

Weights and MeasuresThe ascertainment of mass, distance, and capacity. While fixing exact standards to biblical weights and measures is quite tentative, approximations can be derived from three sources: the OT and NT; other ancient Near Eastern sources (notably Egyptian and Mesopotamian metrologies);

Eerdmans Bible Dictionary

Weights and Measures

Weights and Measures. †A number of difficulties confront the task of transposing biblical measurements into modern systems of measurement. For the most part, what one encounters in the Bible are estimated quantities and measurements based on generally accepted standards rather than on standards enforced

The Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land

Weights And Measures

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES The most ancient standards of weights and measures are those of Egypt and Babylon. The Babylonian six-decimal system is based on a linear unit derived from astronomical calculations. The capacity unit is (the power of three of) the basic linear unit cubed, and the weight of water

Catholic Bible Dictionary

Weights

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES There was no universal standard for measurement in the ancient world, and common measurements varied not only from region to region but sometimes even between cities and villages. The absence of standardized measurements made for fraud through various unscrupulous practices, such

Key passages

Jos 7:21

I saw among the spoil a beautiful robe from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and one bar of gold that weighed fifty shekels; I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, and the silver is under it.”

Jdg 8:26

The weight of the ornamental rings of gold that he requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold, apart from the crescents, pendants, and purple garments that were on the kings of Midian, and apart from the pendants that were on the necks of their camels.

2 Sa 14:26

When he shaved his head, it would happen every year, which he did because it was heavy on him, he would shave it off and weigh the hair of his head: two hundred shekels by the king’s weight.

Pr 11:1

Balances of deceit are an abomination of Yahweh, but an accurate weight delights him.

Pr 16:11

A balance and scales of justice belong to Yahweh; all the weights of the bag are his work.

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