Ehuds blade

catavenger · Post by **catavenger** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 7:36 am

In the book of Judges 3:12 in the Old Testament, we are told Ehud made a "sword" a cubit long. My translation says a cubit is 18 inches or about a half meter long. On this website however http://www.hevanet.com/kort/SWORD1.HTM Ken Cox says the "sword" was 13.5 inches long he also seems to be worried about what length constitutes a "sword" my research show the Hebrew word - "chereb" translated as "sword" could be a blade of any size a dagger or knife so it perhaps was not what we would call a sword still I don't think that it was only 13.5 inches long does any one know how long a cubit is supposed to be or have an information on this subject?

Here is what Ken Cox had made that he thinks may have been like the dagger Ehud had.

I am certain Ehuds was not stainless steel ! It was probably copper or bronze, At anyrate this one is pretty.[/url]

Teddy · Post by **Teddy** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 8:49 pm

Mr. Catavenger,

This is my dictionary definition....

cu·bit
(click to hear the word) (kybt)
n.
An ancient unit of linear measure, originally equal to the length of the forearm from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow, or about 17 to 22 inches (43 to 56 centimeters).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Middle English cubite, from Latin cubitum, cubit, elbow.]

Best wishes
Teddy

Pushbutton · Post by **Pushbutton** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 11:33 pm

Catavenger what forum is that? I always see Ken On BF. Plus he doesn't strike me as a dummy so why didn't he just look it up also? 13 is a big diff to 17 to 22
PB

catavenger · Post by **catavenger** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 7:16 am

http://www.hevanet.com/kort/SWORD1.HTM
Oops
I forgot the link thats it, I agree there is alot of difference between 13.5 and 17-22 inches. A chat friend of mine in Israel says the same as Teddy but he explained it a bit better. Most translations say its 18 inches which I suppose would be about average. I would like something like that myself.

BennytheBlade · Post by **BennytheBlade** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 1:30 am

no doubt thats a sweet blade... an actual bronze or copper replica would be cool to tho... as a hanger anyway.
History channel show called conquests went over knives and knife fighting... really good show and touched on some of the things they used as knives in the biblical times... good info.

catavenger · Post by **catavenger** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 6:51 am

I suppose some of the confusion could be how the fore arm is measured, if one measures the forearm from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow like Teddy says it should be the 17-22 inches ( I came up with 17 inches measuring myself ) if someone did not understand how to measure it and measured it from the wrist to the elbow they would of course come up with a shorter length. Thats my theory.

BennytheBlade · Post by **BennytheBlade** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 3:22 pm

plus i think generally people were shorter back then so arm length would be shorter also...

Greyblade · Post by **Greyblade** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 3:51 pm

BennytheBlade wrote:plus i think generally people were shorter back then so arm length would be shorter also...

BtB,

Maybe that's where the military expression "short arm inspection" came from.

Greyblade

catavenger · Post by **catavenger** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 8:11 pm

I am not that big a cat and I came up with 17 inches maybe somebody real short and somebody tall could compare? It does give you a variance between 17 and 22 inches. 18 being the standard translation . Any one care to measure your short arms ? Ooops

that sounds dirty!

the spotlight kid · Post by **the spotlight kid** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 10:47 pm

19"s

and did you say something about forearm measurements?

Cheers the spotlight kid.

catavenger · Post by **catavenger** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 8:21 pm

I asked the Rabbi and he was nice enought o reply here is his letter.

"A cubit is approximately two feet (or sixty cm). According to the
Meam Loez the cubits here were "short cubits" which half the length
between the elbow and the thumb. The commentaries explain that it was
shorter than normal to allow it to be concealed easily. In effect it
was a cross between a dagger and a sword."

Best regards from Jerusalem,

Rabbi Reuven Lauffer
Ehud had "short cubit" Half the size of a normal one which was 2 feet long according to the rabbi. So it was a foot long. And again we get to the finger to elbow measurement as the Rabbi states "which half the length
between the elbow and the thumb." ( Half since its the short - half size cubit) We have seen however that normal cubit can be 17 inch to 22 inch not the 24 as the Rabbi says. Therefore the "sword" could have been anywhere from 8.5 to 12 inches in length. So Ehud could have had anything from a Fairbairn Sykes Commando Dagger to an Arkansas Toothpick. Of course I am not entirely sure that the length
was supposed to be the over all or just the blade, but since I am already starting to get a headache I won't even get into that!

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Ehuds blade

Ehuds blade

Oops

Whats a cubit??

Height

More confused than ever