Acre

Narrator: Chris Genthree

Duration: 1min

• 1 min. read • grade level: 11

This word, as a measure of land, occurs twice in the Authorized version. In 1 Sam. 14:14,¹⁴And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armorbearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow. (1 Samuel 14:14) the word is maanah, “a furrow,” reading in the margin “half a furrow of an acre.” In Isaiah 5:10¹⁰Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah. (Isaiah 5:10) it is tsemed, “a pair, or yoke.” The “acre” was as much as a yoke of oxen would plow in a day. The Latin etymology is similar: thus jugum, a yoke; jugerum, an acre. The Roman acre contained 28,800 square feet (being 240 feet in length by 120 in breadth), which is less than two-thirds of an English acre, which contains 43,560 square feet. “The Egyptian land measure,” says Wilkinson, “was the aroura, or antra, a square of 100 cubits, covering an area of 10,000 cubits It contained 29,184 square English feet (the cubit being full 20.5 inches) and was little more than three quarters of an English acre.” What the Jewish acre exactly contained we have no means of ascertaining: it is not included in the usual lists of weights and measures as a definite measure of land. The passage in Isaiah 5:10: “ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath” clearly refers to a time of great dearth which Jehovah would send upon Israel in judgment.

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