cubit

The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek that is translated as “cubit” or into a metric or imperial measurement in English is translated in Kutu, Kwere, and Nyamwezi as makono or “armlength.” Since a cubit is the measurement from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, one armlength (measured from the center of the chest to the fingertips) equals two cubits or roughly 1 meter. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

In Klao it is converted into “hand spans” (app. 6 inches or 12 cm) and “finger spans” (app. 1 inch or 2 cm) (Source: Don Slager)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 42:7

And there was a wall outside parallel to the chambers, toward the outer court, opposite the chambers, fifty cubits long: Ezekiel now turns his attention to what was outside the building of rooms, that is, on the north side of the building toward the outer court, which is better rendered “in the outer courtyard” (similarly New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). He saw a wall that ran parallel to the building of rooms opposite the chambers, that is, in front of them. The wall was fifty cubits long, that is, 25 meters (84 feet) long. It was probably a “privacy wall” (Contemporary English Version), that is, a wall that was there to screen the doors of the rooms, so that people in the outer courtyard could not look in. Although Ezekiel does not mention it here, between the wall and the building of rooms was the half-meter walkway referred to in verse 4 (see the comments there).

A model for this verse is:

• In the outer courtyard, along the front of the [building of] rooms and running parallel to them, was a [screening] wall that was 25 meters long.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .