Stature

stat'-ur (madh, middah, "measure" (Nu 13:32, etc.), qomah, "standing up" (1Sa 16:7, etc.); helikia, "greatness"): This last word means "height of the body," "stature," in Lu 2:52; 19:3; Eph 4:13, but it can mean "length of life" equally well and has this force in Joh 9:21,23; Heb 11:11. And this meaning, not "stature" (as in the King James Version), is fixed for Mt 6:27 parallel Lu 12:25, for to add some 18 inches (see CUBIT) to one's "stature" would be a grotesque feat, while it is the smallness of the act that is emphasized. Hence, the translation "able to extend his long path of life by a single cubit" (the Revised Version (British and American) "measure of life"). Compare also "great of stature" Baruch 3:26 (eumegethes).

Burton Scott Easton