טֶ֫פַח
te.phach
handbreadth
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
ExploredThe Hebrew word טֶ֫פַח (te.phach) translates to "handbreadth." This measures a unit of length, equivalent to the width of a person's hand from the tip of the fingers to the base of the palm. Its significance in the Bible is tied to physical measurement and spatial descriptions. In the four instances of its occurrence, "handbreadth" is used in contexts that require precise measurements, such as describing the size of gates, doors, or spaces. This indicates its role as a standard unit of length in ancient Israelite culture. The use of "handbreadth" suggests an everyday, utilitarian understanding of measurement, as opposed to using more abstract or complex units of length.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
4 total occurrences across the text
Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.”
1 Kings 7:9All these were of costly stones, even of cut stone, according to measure, sawed with saws, inside and outside, even from the foundation to the coping, and so on the outside to the great court.
1 Kings 7:26It was a hand width thick. Its brim was worked like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held two thousand baths.
2 Chronicles 4:5It was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It received and held three thousand baths.