GEN 18:6: Abraham tells Sarah to prepare “three seahs” of flour for the guests. What is important here is that this represents a relatively large amount of flour, perhaps indicating Abraham’s generosity toward his guests. A good model is CEV “a large sack.”
1SA 25:18: Abigail prepares “five seahs” of roasted grain for David’s men. Some modern translations say “a bushel” (NCV; GNT is more generous with “two bushels) or “about forty liters” (SPCL). It is effective to give the name of a container; thus CEV and ITCL have “a large sack.”
1KI 18:32: Elijah digs a trench around the altar, “large enough for two seahs of seed” (similarly NIV). This is about 12 or 13 quarts, or about 11.5 liters, which is not a large amount. It has long been suggested that this speaks of the area that can be sown with this amount of seed, and in fact ancient Jewish authorities even calculated the area as 5,000 square cubits. If this is the intention, then it is clearly an exaggeration. Most translations give the idea that the volume of the trench was the same as that volume of seed, which would make a small and unimpressive trench. GECL, however, says “so wide that it would have been possible to sow twelve kilos of seed in it.” GNT changes the dry measure to a liquid one, saying “large enough to hold about four gallons of water.”
2KI 7:1; 2KI 7:1; 2KI 7:16; 2KI 7:16; 2KI 7:18; 2KI 7:18: The point of Elisha’s prophecy here is that prices will drop drastically and that what had been impossible to obtain will be plentiful and cheap. Here it is important that the amount to be paid seem like a very small amount considering what is being bought. However, this is the kind of thing which becomes quickly outdated in a translation. The translator might wish to add a qualifying phrase such as “XX will be sold for as little as YY.” For the last half of 2KI 7:1, CEV provides a good model: “you will be able to buy a large sack of flour or two large sacks of barley for almost nothing.”