Charles Ellicott Commentary


Charles Ellicott Commentary
"The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of a homer, and the ephah the tenth part of a homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer." — Ezekiel 45:11 (ASV)
Shall be of one measure.—The Ephah is first mentioned in Exodus 16:36, and appears to be a word of Egyptian origin; it was used for dry measure. The Bath does not appear before 1 Kings 7:26, and was the largest of the liquid measures in use. The statement that these were of the same capacity, and each equal to the tenth part of the Homer, is important in the comparison of the Hebrew dry and liquid measures, but it is extremely difficult to determine their absolute value.
If we calculate based on the estimates of Josephus, the Homer was 86,696 English gallons; if based on those of the Rabbis, 42,286. Modern estimates differ nearly as much.
The Homer, which was ten Ephahs, should be carefully distinguished from the Omer, which was the tenth part of an Ephah. The two words are quite different in Hebrew.