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Handbreadth

Hebrew טֶפַח. Literally "a palm". Also called Tefach, Palm.

The width of four fingers at the palm: a sixth of a cubit.

Length
7.41–7.62 cm (2.92–3 in). Defined as 1/6 of a cubit. Inherits the disagreement over the cubit.

The handbreadth is the width of the palm, four fingers across, and it is the unit the difference between the two cubits is expressed in — Ezekiel's royal cubit is an ordinary cubit plus one of these. It is also the thickness of the bronze Sea in Solomon's temple, and the measure the psalmist reaches for when he wants a life to sound short.

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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