A measure of four fingers, equal to about four inches (Ex. 25:25; 37:12; Ps. 39:5, etc.).
Handbreadth
A handbreadth is the width of a hand, roughly three or four inches, and it was a plain, everyday unit for building. The table of showbread had a border of “an hand breadth” round about, and the great bronze basin at Solomon’s temple was “an hand breadth thick.” Ezekiel’s visionary guide measures the temple with a reed that includes a handbreadth. The one famous use is not about building at all: David prays, “thou hast made my days as an handbreadth,” and says his age is as nothing before God. Psalm 39 is the place to start.
7 verses
Exodus
Exodus 25:25
And thou shalt make unto it a border of an hand breadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about.
1 Kings
1 Kings 7:26
And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.
2 Chronicles
2 Chronicles 4:5
And the thickness of it was an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.
Psalms
Psalms 39:5
Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
Isaiah
Isaiah 48:13
Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.
Ezekiel
Ezekiel 40:5
And behold a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by the cubit and an hand breadth: so he measured the breadth of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed.
Ezekiel 40:43
And within were hooks, an hand broad, fastened round about: and upon the tables was the flesh of the offering.
From Easton's Bible Dictionary
Matthew George Easton, 1897