Weights and measures, dry

These terms derive originally from the containers used, which held a fixed amount. Measures are given in ascending order, with their approximate imperial and metric equivalents.

Cab (1/18 ephah): about 2 pints (about 1 litre)

2 Kings 6:25 This is the only mention in Scripture of this measure.

So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.

Omer (1/10 ephah): about 4 pints (about 2 litres)

Exodus 16:16–22 This incident records the only mention in Scripture of this measure. See also Exodus 16:32, Exodus 16:36

This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather as much as he needs. You may take an omer for each person in your tent.’” So the Israelites did this. Some gathered more, and some less. When they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much had no excess, and he who gathered little had no shortfall. Each one gathered as much as he needed to eat. Then Moses said to them, “No one may keep any of it until morning.” But they did not listen to Moses; some people left part of it until morning, and it became infested with maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them. Every morning each one gathered as much as was needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much food — two omers per person — and all the leaders of the congregation came and reported this to Moses.

Seah (1/3 ephah): about 13 pints (about 7.3 litres)

Genesis 18:6 The seah was a measure used for flour and cereals. See also 1 Samuel 25:18; 1 Kings 18:32; 2 Kings 7:1

So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Prepare three seahs of fine flour, knead it, and bake some bread.”

Ephah: about 3/5 bushel (about 22 litres)

Ruth 2:17 The ephah was used only for flour and cereals, and had subdivisions of 1/6 and 1/10. See also Leviticus 5:11, Leviticus 24:5; Numbers 15:4–9; Judges 6:19; 1 Samuel 17:17; Ezekiel 45:10–11; Zechariah 5:6–8 The word for “measuring basket” in the Hebrew is “ephah”.

So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. And when she beat out what she had gleaned, it was about an ephah of barley.

Lethek (5 ephahs or 1/2 homer): about 3 bushels (about 110 litres)

Hosea 3:2 Possibly a Phoenician measure, this is the only mention in Scripture of this measure.

So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.

Cor (10 ephahs): about 6 bushels (about 220 litres)

1 Kings 4:22 The cor was used for measuring flour and cereals, and also appears to have been used for measuring oil. See also 1 Kings 5:11; 2 Chronicles 2:10, 2 Chronicles 27:5; Ezra 7:22; Ezekiel 45:14

Solomon’s provisions for a single day were thirty cors of fine flour, sixty cors of meal,

Homer (10 ephahs): about 6 bushels (about 220 litres)

Leviticus 27:16 The homer is an older word than the cor, but is equivalent to it. It originally meant “a donkey load” and was widely used throughout the ancient Near East from the second millennium B.C. as a measure for cereals. See also Numbers 11:32; Isaiah 5:10; Ezekiel 45:11, Ezekiel 45:13–14; Hosea 3:2

If a man consecrates to the LORD a parcel of his land, then your valuation shall be proportional to the seed required for it — fifty shekels of silver for every homer of barley seed.

Other dry measures found in the NT

Quart (choinix): about 1 1/2–2 pints (about 1 litre)

Revelation 6:6 The word translated “quart” is “choinix”, a Greek measure.

Saton (equivalent to the OT seah)

Matthew 13:33 parallel Luke 13:21 The “large amount” referred to is “three sata” in the Greek.

Bowl (modius): about 15 1/2 pints (about 8.75 litres)

Matthew 5:15 parallels Mark 4:21, Luke 11:33 The word translated “bowl” is the Roman measure “modius”.

Koros (equivalent to the OT cor)

Luke 16:7 The measure translated as “a thousand bushels” is “one hundred korous” in the Greek.