12:7 The businessmen love to cheat; 1
they use dishonest scales. 2
8:5 You say,
“When will the new moon festival 3 be over, 4 so we can sell grain?
When will the Sabbath end, 5 so we can open up the grain bins? 6
We’re eager 7 to sell less for a higher price, 8
and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales! 9
1 tn Heb “the merchant…loves to cheat.” The Hebrew has singular forms (noun and verb) which are used generically to refer to all Israelite merchants and traders in general. The singular noun II כְּנַעַן (kÿna’an, “a merchant; a trader”; BDB 488 s.v. II כְּנַעַן) is used in a generic sense to refer to the merchant class of Israel as a whole (e.g., Ezek 16:29; 17:4; Zeph 1:11).
2 tn Heb “The merchant – in his hand are scales of deceit – loves to cheat.” The present translation rearranges the Hebrew line division to produce a smoother English rendering.
3 sn Apparently work was prohibited during the new moon festival, just as it was on the Sabbath.
4 tn Heb “pass by.”
5 tn The verb, though omitted in the Hebrew text, is supplied in the translation from the parallel line.
6 tn Heb “sell grain.” Here “grain” could stand by metonymy for the bins where it was stored.
7 tn Here and in v. 6 the words “we’re eager” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
8 tn Heb “to make small the ephah and to make great the shekel.” The “ephah” was a unit of dry measure used to determine the quantity purchased, while the “shekel” was a standard weight used to determine the purchase price. By using a smaller than standard ephah and a heavier than standard shekel, these merchants were able to increase their profit (“sell less for a higher price”) by cheating the buyer.
9 tn Heb “and to cheat with deceptive scales”; NASB, NIV “dishonest scales”; NRSV “false balances.”