Biblical Cubits to Millimeters (cubit to mm)

1 biblical cubit equals 540 millimeters exactly.

1 biblical cubit = 540 millimeters

How to convert biblical cubits to millimeters

To convert biblical cubits to millimeters, multiply the number of biblical cubits by 540. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply millimeters by 0.001851851852 (rounded).

millimeters = biblical cubits × 540

Example: 10 biblical cubits = 5,400 millimeters.

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)

Millimeter (mm)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One thousandth of a meter. Used in engineering, manufacturing and rainfall measurement.

Carl Friedrich Gauss put the millimeter at the base of his 1832 proposal for absolute units, pairing it with the milligram and the second, although the centimeter-based CGS system later won out among scientists. The name combines the metric prefix milli-, from the Latin for one thousand, with the meter. Since 1983 a millimeter has been tied to the speed of light: it is the distance light covers in 1/299,792,458,000 of a second.

Millimeters are the language of fine mechanical work. Standard rulers are divided into them, digital calipers commonly read to 0.01 mm, and mechanical pencil leads come in 0.5 and 0.7 mm. Copy paper is about 0.1 mm thick, and a thin hair, at 0.02 to 0.04 mm across, is close to the smallest thing the naked eye can see. A wave with a frequency of 300 GHz has a wavelength of 1 mm. An inch is exactly 25.4 mm. One trap for readers in the United States is that mil there traditionally means a thousandth of an inch, not a millimeter.

1 millimeter = 0.001 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Millimetre; Wikipedia: Centimetre-gram-second system of units; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

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