Homer (unit)

A homer (Hebrew: חֹמֶר ḥōmer, plural חמרם ḥomārim; also כֹּר kōr) is a biblical unit of volume used for liquids and dry goods. One homer is equal to 10 baths, or what was also equivalent to 30 seahs; each seah being the equivalent in volume to six kabs, and each kab equivalent in volume to 24 medium-sized eggs.[1] One homer equals 220 litre or 220 dm3.

Lawrence Boadt notes the word homer comes from the Hebrew for an "ass." "It is one ass-load."[2]

The homer should not be confused with the omer, which is a much smaller unit of dry measure.

References
  1. The Mishnah (ed. Herbert Danby), Oxford University Press: Oxford 1977, Appendix II, p. 798 ISBN 0 19 815402 X
  2. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Brown, Fitzmyer, and Murphy, Printice Hall, 1990 ISMN 0-12-614934, p. 327


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