Biblical Cubits to Kilometers (cubit to km)

1 biblical cubit equals 0.00054 kilometers exactly.

1 biblical cubit = 0.00054 kilometers

How to convert biblical cubits to kilometers

To convert biblical cubits to kilometers, multiply the number of biblical cubits by 0.00054. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply kilometers by 1,851.851852 (rounded).

kilometers = biblical cubits × 0.00054

Example: 10 biblical cubits = 0.0054 kilometers.

Approximate value. Standards for the biblical cubit varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.

About these units

Biblical Cubit (cubit)

Biblical (Hebrew)Historical unit (no longer in standard use)Approximate value

The cubit of the Hebrew Bible, taken here as the rabbinic cubit of about 54 cm (21 in). Estimates range from about 48 cm to 57.6 cm, so the exact value is debated.

Latin cubitum means elbow, and the cubit began as the span from elbow to fingertip. The Hebrew term is amah. The Bible gives measurements in cubits for Noah's Ark, the Tabernacle and Solomon's Temple, so the length matters to anyone trying to reconstruct them. Since arms differ, the unit varied by country and era, and no single figure is certain.

In the second century CE the rabbis defined a cubit as six handbreadths, each of four fingerbreadths, which gives roughly 54 cm. Later authorities disagree: Avraham Chaim Naeh calculated 48 cm, and the Chazon Ish 57.6 cm. Maimonides also described a shorter cubit of five handbreadths for measuring the altar. The 54 cm rabbinic figure is the one used here. A rough modern comparison is the length of a forearm and a hand, or between 19 and 23 inches.

1 biblical cubit = 0.54 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Cubit; Wikipedia: Sabbath day's journey (biblical mile)

Kilometer (km)

Metric (SI)Current unit

1,000 meters. The standard unit for road distances in most countries.

A name for 1,000 meters took a while to settle. In 1793 France's National Convention made the metre the sole French unit of length, and the first proposed name for the thousand-metre multiple was millaire. Everyday French usage then leaned on the myriametre, 10,000 meters, well into the 1800s. The Netherlands adopted the kilometre in 1817, under the local name mijl, and made it the only official unit of that size in 1867. In 1935 the CIPM dropped the myria- prefix, which left the kilometre as the standard unit for road-scale distances.

Kilo- is the SI prefix for a thousand, and the kilometre is now the preferred unit for land distances in most of the world, with the United States, the United Kingdom and Liberia among those that still use the mile. One kilometre is about 0.621 mile. The main span of Lisbon's 25 de Abril Bridge, at 1.013 km, gives a sense of the scale. Even its pronunciation has been argued over: in 1970 Australia's Metric Conversion Board made stress on the first syllable official, although Prime Minister Gough Whitlam argued for stress on the second. Military slang in several countries calls it a klick.

1 kilometer = 1,000 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Kilometre; Wikipedia: Metric prefix; BIPM: history of the metre

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