Biblical Hebrew Forum

[<tladatsi AT charter.net>]

Almost all traditional units of measurement are rather 
imprecise by modern standards.  In the English system a 
yard is the distance from the nose to the end of the thumb 
(with the neck straight).  A fathom is the length of rope 
from hand to hand.  A mile is 1,000 double strides (about 5 
feet) of a Roman legionnaire.  The differences between 
individuals is small compared to over imprecision of the 
project.  If two sailors are measuring the distance to 
bottom of a shoal, if there is a few inches difference 
between their respective fathoms, it is lost in the 
changing tides and the pitch of the boat.  If someone is 
buying silk from a mercer and serge de Nimes from a second 
mercer, each at a different price per yard, the difference 
lengths of their respective arms is not important.  

Yigal is of course that each individual arkwright would 
measure 300 cubits somewhat differently if they were 
building a chest / box / ark.  However, so long as only one 
master arkwright is doing the measuring it does not matter.  
Even if one side of the ark is a few barleycorns (1/3rd of 
an inch) longer it has no impact on its performance.  
Nowadays we find this sort intuitive engineering 
unacceptable but until rather recently it was the norm.


Jack Tladatsi