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Finger

Hebrew אֶצְבַּע. Literally "finger". Also called Etzba, Fingerbreadth.

The smallest length named: a finger's width, a quarter of a handbreadth.

Length
1.85–1.9 cm (0.729–0.75 in). Defined as 1/4 of a handbreadth. Inherits the disagreement over the cubit.

A finger's width is the smallest unit of length the Old Testament names, and it appears just once as a measurement — the thickness of the bronze pillars Solomon set before the temple, which Jeremiah records as four fingers.

A finger and a handbreadth, measured on a hand A painted hand, palm out. A bracket across one finger marks a finger’s width, 1.85–1.9 cm (0.729–0.75 in); a bracket across all four fingers marks a handbreadth, 7.41–7.62 cm (2.92–3 in). Below, a cubit, 44.5–45.7 cm, is split into six handbreadths and twenty-four fingers, with half of it marked as a span, 22.2–22.9 cm. a finger1.85–1.9 cm · 0.729–0.75 in a handbreadth: four fingers7.41–7.62 cm · 2.92–3 in a span: three handbreadths22.2–22.9 cm · 8.75–9 in a cubit: six handbreadths, twenty-four fingers44.5–45.7 cm · 17.5–18 inthe ruler is not at the hand’s scale
The body was the ruler: four fingers make a handbreadth, three handbreadths a span, two spans a cubit. The finger is named as a measure once, the thickness of the temple’s bronze pillars, four fingers (Jeremiah 52:21); the handbreadth is the thickness of the bronze Sea (1 Kings 7:26), and the psalmist’s you have made my days hand widths (Psalm 39:5).

Where it appears

See also

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