Letek
The letek (Hebrew לתך) is a dry measure found in the Bible only once. In Hosea 3:2, the prophet purchased an adulteress for “fifteen pieces of silver, and for a chomer of barley, and a half a chomer [letek] of barley”.
All the Bible’s measures were based on farm life, and most people had donkeys to help them. So while a donkey can carry the weight of a full threshed chomer of finished grain, he cannot carry a full chomer of sheaves with all the straw attached. Not to mention the added volume would be very difficult to balance. But he certainly could carry a half-chomer which is probably why it had its own name, letek. That’s about what you see in the picture at right – a donkey load of unthreshed grain, which yields a letek, half-chomer, of grain.
