997. To measure length in the Old Testament one would have used several units. From smallest to largest, the scale was finger-palm-span-cubit. The cubit was considered the most basic form of measurement, something like what Americans consider the "foot" measurement. The cubit was the length of the forearm measured to the tip of the middle finger. Generally this length varied between seventeen and eighteen inches in length.
998. The span was the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger with the hand extended and the fingers held apart. It was roughly one half of the standard cubit. The palm was approximately one sixth of the common cubit and was initially measured as the breadth of the hand at the base of the fingers. The finger measurement was considered to be about one quarter of a palm and was considered the smallest subdivision of the cubit.
999. Weights in the Bible followed their own system of measure. The weights ascended from the smallest weight of a pim, beka, or gerah, to the larger shekel, mina, and talent (as Jesus mentioned in one of His parables). For the smaller weights, balances would have been used to measure properly.
1000. A shekel was .403 ounces. The pim, beka, and gerah were all smaller fractions of the shekel. In order for these weights to be effective, balances were used. As the cubit was the standard measure, so the shekel was the standard unit of weight. Shekel is descended from the word meaning "to weigh."
1001. The talent was by far the largest unit of weight used to measure. Each talent was worth three thousand shekels and weighed around seventy-five pounds. Minas were between fifty and sixty shekels, depending on whether the system was Israelite or Babylonian. Each mina weighed roughly 1.25 pounds.
an deireadh
