Units of Measurement Wiki
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This page describes an obsolete unit.

The unit described on this page was in use prior to modern methods of precision measurement. It was based on a standard which is no longer available, and which is not capable of being calibrated against modern measurement units. Therefore, the equivalence to modern SI units or to current United States customary units can only be considered approximate.



The mil (מיל, derived from the Roman mile) was a unit of length or distance in the Ancient Hebrew system.

Value in terms of modern units[]

Ancient Hebrew units of length or distance are mentioned in the Bible, but their values in terms of modern units are open to some speculation. The only way of determining the length of any Ancient Hebrew unit would be to measure something in modern terms whose length was given by the Hebrews in their units. Unlike the Attic Greek and Ancient Roman units, there are not good examples of such measurable objects, so much of the information we have is based on guesswork.

The mil has been described as a distance walkable in 18 minutes. (Since average walking speeds are 5 km/hr = 3.1 mi/hr, this implies a distance of 1500 m = 1640.4 yd = 0.9 mi. However, most estimates are shorter, see below.)

Estimates of the value of the Hebrew mil range from 960–1152 m (1049–1258 yd). (Although the name came from the Roman mile, this is far less than that unit, whose length was 1472 m ( 1609.8 yd = 0.91 mi.)

Relation to other Ancient Hebrew length units[]

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