Ephah

The ephah was the principal dry-measure of the Hebrew Bible — about 22 litres, the volume of a substantial grain basket. It equalled ten omers (Exodus 16:36) and one-tenth of a homer, and stood as the dry-goods counterpart to the liquid bath. An ephah was the daily ration for the household of the prophet Ezekiel in vision (Ezekiel 45:11), and the quantity of flour Hannah brought to Shiloh with the young Samuel (1 Samuel 1:24). The grain offering accompanying a bull sacrifice was three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil (Numbers 28:12). Because the ephah measured staple food, it became a flashpoint for prophetic critique of trade injustice. Amos thunders against merchants 'making the ephah small and the shekel great, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit' (Amos 8:5): they sold short measure at heavy weight. Zechariah's eighth vision (Zechariah 5:5–11) shows a woman called 'Wickedness' sealed inside an ephah-basket — the measure of trade made into the measure of national sin.