Chomer
The largest wet and dry volume measurements in the Bible had a common measure called the chomer; (homer in KJV) not to be confused with the much smaller dry measurement of an omer. It was once called a cor when used for liquids (Ezekiel 45:14), but even there the Bible calls it a chomer, too.
Most people call it a homer, but the Hebrew is closer to chomer, Hebrew plural is chomerim.
The chomer divided into 10 wet measurement baths or into ten 10 dry measurement ephahs (Ezekiel 45:11), but the Bible emphasizes that these are the exact same volume, just wet versus dry measure. So a bath is the same as an ephah, the only difference is that a bath is designed to hold liquids, the ephah is designed for dry goods.
The ephah further divides into ten omers (not homers!) in Exodus 16:36. The bath divides into hins; we can assume 10 hins, to be in keeping with the pattern, although we are not clearly told that. More on that later. So how big was the chomer?
The majority opinion, historically, was about 80 gallons (300 liters). This has changed since the discovery of ancient jars in Tell Beit Mirsim marked “bath”, which contained about 5.75 gallons (22 liters). We’ll prove this unit from a different direction later, but we need a place to start.
If a bath is 5.75 gallons, then it’s about the same size as a modern 5-gallon/20-liter bucket. And 10 baths would be 57.5 gallons, one chomer. Interestingly this is almost exactly the same as the common 55 gallon/200-liter drum known worldwide. So when you hear “chomer” think of a barrel, and when you hear bath or ephah think of a bucket.
The word chomer comes from the Hebrew chamor meaning “donkey” or “ass”. This is because donkeys were the primary way of hauling large quantities of goods and this was the amount of weight a donkey could carry on his back – thus, it was quite literally one ass-load of grain.
If filled with water or wine, our barrel would have weighed about 480 pounds, too much for any donkey, so the definition of a chomer would have to be based on the amount of dry goods a donkey can carry. One chomer, 57.5 gallons of grains, would weigh about 250 pounds. Can a donkey carry that?
In this picture of modern Syrian donkeys, each donkey is carrying bundles of straw I would guess weigh around 50 pounds each (imagine a square bale of hay). The women probably weigh around 120 or so more – they’re short, but not skinny. Plus the saddle. This is at least 220 pounds, and it probably isn’t the biggest load ever loaded on a donkey.
People regularly rode donkeys throughout the Bible. In Exodus 4:20, a woman and two children of unknown age were placed on one; figuring a typical healthy woman at 125 pounds and imagining an average of 30 pounds each for young children, that’s 185 pounds, conservatively.
This image from AD 1236 England displays a bag of grain which could have easily weighed 200 pounds, if it really is same size as the man balancing it. This would actually be the definition of a chomer.
In the Bible, Baalam, an adult male who probably weighed between 150 and 200 pounds rode a donkey in Numbers 22:30. And this, apparently, was a female (verse 33). A male could have carried more. Thirty brothers all rode asses (Judges 10:4). And there are many other examples of riding donkeys in the Bible.
All of these examples point to an upper limit on a typical Biblical donkey of around 250 pounds, perhaps even 300. This is precisely consistent with the heaviest dry unit commonly carried on a donkey – grains! A full load of grains, properly loaded on a donkey, would be equivalent to one chomer; about 1 modern 55 gallon drum full.
