Fingerbreadth

A fingerbreadth is the width of a finger used as a small linear unit. The UPDV preserves the unit in a single architectural notice — the thickness of the bronze pillars in the Jerusalem temple, reported in fingers as the closing detail of Jeremiah's account of the city's fall.

Pillar Thickness in Fingers

In the catalogue of temple furnishings carried off after the destruction of Jerusalem, the dimensions of one of the bronze pillars are given in three units — cubits, cubits again, and fingers: "And as for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits encircled it; and its thickness was four fingers: it was hollow" (Jer 52:21). The cubit measures the pillar's height and circumference; the finger measures the wall's thickness. The notice that the column was hollow is what makes the small unit necessary — the metal shell is thin enough to be reported in finger-widths rather than cubits.