Amah (Ancient Hebrew)

This page describes an obsolete unit.

The unit described on this page was in use prior to modern methods of precision measurement. It was based on a standard which is no longer available, and which is not capable of being calibrated against modern measurement units. Therefore, the equivalence to modern SI units or to current United States customary units can only be considered approximate.

The amah (אמה, sometimes rendered as cubit or ell) was a unit of length or distance in the Ancient Hebrew measurement system. The plural is Amoth (Ancient pronunciation) or Amot (Modern Israeli pronunciation) (אמות).

Value in terms of modern units

Ancient Hebrew units of length or distance are mentioned in the Bible, but their values in terms of modern units are open to some speculation. The only way of determining the length of any Ancient Hebrew unit would be to measure something in modern terms whose length was given by the Hebrews in their units. Unlike the Attic Greek and Ancient Roman units, there are not good examples of such measurable objects, so much of the information we have is based on guesswork.

The range of values of the length of the amah given in various sources gives the minimum as 48 cm = 1.57 ft = 0.52 yd and the maximum as 64 cm = 2.1 ft = 0.7 yd .

Relation to other Ancient Hebrew length units

• 2 zaroth = 1 amah
• 2000 amoth = 1 mil