Biblical Cubits to Yards (cubit to yd)

1 biblical cubit equals 0.5905511811 yards (rounded).

1 biblical cubit = 0.5905511811 yards

How to convert biblical cubits to yards

To convert biblical cubits to yards, multiply the number of biblical cubits by 0.5905511811. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply yards by 1.693333333 (rounded).

yards = biblical cubits × 0.5905511811

Example: 10 biblical cubits = 5.905511811 yards.

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)

Yard (yd)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

3 feet or 36 inches, exactly 0.9144 meters. Used for sports fields, fabric and short distances in the US and UK.

Yard descends from the Old English gerd or gyrd, meaning a branch, stave or measuring rod. It first appears in the late seventh-century laws of Ine of Wessex, though there it names a tax unit, the yardland. Around 959 to 963 King Edgar ordered that the measure held at Winchester be used throughout his realm, the earliest record of a prototype. A story that Henry I fixed the yard as the distance from his nose to his thumb is later folklore, and the true origin, whether pace, cubit or waist, remains speculative.

Britain defined the Imperial Standard Yard in 1824 as the distance between two marks on a brass rod at 62 degrees Fahrenheit. A fire in 1834 damaged the standard, a replacement was made in 1845, and the Weights and Measures Act 1855 recognized it. The 1959 international agreement then fixed the yard at exactly 0.9144 meter. Today it measures American and Canadian football fields, association football pitches and cricket pitches, appears on UK road signs for short distances, and is still used to sell fabric in the US and UK.

1 yard = 0.9144 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Yard; Wikipedia: Inch; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

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