PALM, Palmus, a Measure of four Fingers Breadth, or of 337/89 Inches1. It is called in Hebrew Tophach2. Also the Hebrew Word Zereth3 is often translated by Palmus, and in Greek by Spithame, though it signifies a Half-cubit, and contains three ordinary Palms; which ought to be observed, that two Measures so unequal may not be confounded. St. Jerom sometimes translates Tophach by four Fingers, and sometimes by a Palm; but he always renders Zereth by Palmus, and the Septuagint by Spithame. Goliah was in Heighth six Cubits and a Zereth, that is to say, six Cubits and an half, making eleven Feet one Inch and something more4. We find in Isaiah an Expression that proves the Zereth, or Palm, to signify the Extent of the Hand from the End of the Thumb to the End of the little Finger. Quis mensus est pugillo aquas, aut cælos palmo ponderavit? Who hath measured the Waters in the Hollow of his Hand, and meted out Heaven with the Span?
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Footnotes
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Translators’ note. This is Paris Measure, and reduced to English Measure makes 381/127 Inches, or Decimally 3,648 Inches. ↩
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טפח Tophach, palmus, Παλαιστής. Exod. xxv. 25. xxxvi. 12. 1 Kings vii. 26, &c. ↩
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זרתZereth, palmus. 70. Σπιθαμή. Exod. xxviii. 16. ↩
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Translators’ note. In our Measure this is something more than 11 Feet 10 Inches. ↩