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Money and measures
Ephah and bath
dry and liquid measures of the same size · about 22 liters by one view, 18–21 by another
The ephah was the everyday measure for grain, and the bath for liquids such as wine and oil; Ezekiel makes them equal, each a tenth of a homer (45:11). Their size in today’s units is uncertain. By one view, an ephah held about 22 liters; by another, based on jars marked “bath” and “bath of the king” found at Lachish and other sites, about 18 to 21 liters. The homer — the name probably means “a donkey’s load” — held ten times as much.
When Ruth beat out the barley she had gleaned in one day, it came to about an ephah (Ruth 2:17), roughly 11 to 14 kilograms of grain. The bronze “sea” in Solomon’s temple held two thousand baths, some 40,000 liters of water (1 Kings 7:26). Because the ephah was used in buying and selling, the prophets condemned merchants who made “the ephah small” (Amos 8:5), and the Law demanded “an honest ephah” (Leviticus 19:36).
Key verses
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.You must use honest scales, a just ephah, and a just bath. The ephah and the bath shall be the same quantity so that the bath will contain a tenth of a homer, and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer will be the standard measure for both.It was a handbreadth thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold two thousand baths.asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales.You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.Sources
Adapted and shortened from the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers · CC BY-SA 4.0 — Ephah (Measurement); Bath; Weights and Measures: Ephah; Weights and Measures: Bath
Adapted from Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary: articles chosen, shortened and retold in our own words (history, nature and daily life only) and, in languages other than English, machine-translated. The original work by Tyndale House Publishers is available for free at tyndaleopenresources.com.
