the Berasit Hebrew Dictionary

בת

Most of the time, 'bet' is understood in the English translations to mean “household”.

However, there are a handful of cases where this word is wrongly translated as a unit of measurement. This incorrect translation occurs primarily in the book of Exodus, Chronicles, and Ezekiel.

The mistranslation has been codified and standardized by the erroneous assignment of a separate strong number. Essentially, 'bet' is sometimes assigned 1324, and sometimes assigned 1004, leading to much confusion.

Ezekiel Chapter 45 defines standards of weights and measures. It also assigns a certain portion per house, seemingly indicating a Universal Basic Income. Most translations erroneously interpret the word 'bet' as a separately defined measurement, but this is not justified in the context. Rather, the normal meaning of = “household” should be understood contextually here as “per household”.

In this context 'bet' does refer to a unit of measure, but the unit is literally “per household”. This same usage occurs in 2 Chronicles chapters 2 and 4 where King Solomon enters a contract with the King of Tyre to provide food, wine and oil for 20,000 Lebanese workers and their households as payment for their woodworking skills.¹⁾.

This brings us back to the usage in the book of Exodus. - finish this…

LexID 1324, 1004