11:1 The Lord abhors 4 dishonest scales, 5
but an accurate weight 6 is his delight.
16:11 Honest scales and balances 7 are from the Lord;
all the weights 8 in the bag are his handiwork.
20:10 Diverse weights and diverse measures 9 –
the Lord abhors 10 both of them.
21:3 To do righteousness and justice
is more acceptable 11 to the Lord than sacrifice. 12
8:4 Listen to this, you who trample 13 the needy,
and do away with 14 the destitute in the land.
8:5 You say,
“When will the new moon festival 15 be over, 16 so we can sell grain?
When will the Sabbath end, 17 so we can open up the grain bins? 18
We’re eager 19 to sell less for a higher price, 20
and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales! 21
8:6 We’re eager to trade silver for the poor, 22
a pair of sandals 23 for the needy!
We want to mix in some chaff with the grain!” 24
6:10 “I will not overlook, 25 O sinful house, the dishonest gain you have hoarded away, 26
or the smaller-than-standard measure I hate so much. 27
6:11 I do not condone the use of rigged scales,
or a bag of deceptive weights. 28
1 tn That is, liquid capacity (HALOT 640 s.v. מְשׂוּרָה). Cf. ASV, NIV, NRSV, TEV “quantity”; NAB, NASB “capacity.”
2 tn Heb “balances of righteousness,” and so throughout this sentence.
3 sn An ephah is a dry measure which measures about four gallons, or perhaps one third of a bushel, while a hin is a liquid measure of about 3.6 liters (= approximately 1 quart).
4 tn Heb “an abomination of the
5 tn Heb “scales of deception.” The genitive is attributive: “deceptive scales.” This refers to dishonesty in the market where silver was weighed in the scales. God condemns dishonest business practices (Deut 25:13-16; Lev 10:35-36), as did the ancient Near East (ANET 388, 423).
6 tn Heb “a perfect stone.” Stones were used for measuring amounts of silver on the scales; here the stone that pleases the
7 tn Heb “a scale and balances of justice.” This is an attributive genitive, meaning “just scales and balances.” The law required that scales and measures be accurate and fair (Lev 19:36; Deut 25:13). Shrewd dishonest people kept light and heavy weights to make unfair transactions.
8 tn Heb “stones.”
9 tn The construction simply uses repetition to express different kinds of weights and measures: “a stone and a stone, an ephah and an ephah.”
10 tn Heb “an abomination of the
11 tn The Niphal participle בָּחַר (bakhar, “to choose”) means “choice to the
12 sn The
13 tn See the note on the word “trample” in 2:7.
14 tn Or “put an end to”; or “exterminate.”
15 sn Apparently work was prohibited during the new moon festival, just as it was on the Sabbath.
16 tn Heb “pass by.”
17 tn The verb, though omitted in the Hebrew text, is supplied in the translation from the parallel line.
18 tn Heb “sell grain.” Here “grain” could stand by metonymy for the bins where it was stored.
19 tn Here and in v. 6 the words “we’re eager” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
20 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.
21 tn Heb “and to cheat with deceptive scales”; NASB, NIV “dishonest scales”; NRSV “false balances.”
22 tn Heb “to buy the poor for silver.”
23 tn See the note on the word “sandals” in 2:6.
24 tn Heb “The chaff of the grain we will sell.”
25 tn The meaning of the first Hebrew word in the line is unclear. Possibly it is a combination of the interrogative particle and אִשׁ (’ish), an alternate form of יֵשׁ (yesh, “there is/are”). One could then translate literally, “Are there treasures of sin [in] the house of the sinful?” The translation assumes an emendation to הַאֶשֶּׁה (ha’esheh, from נָשָׁא, nasha’, “to forget”), “Will I forget?” The rhetorical question expects an answer, “No, I will not forget.”
26 tn Heb “the treasures of sin”; NASB “treasures of wickedness”; NIV “ill-gotten treasures.”
27 tn Heb “the accursed scant measure.”
28 tn Heb “Do I acquit sinful scales, and a bag of deceptive weights?” The rhetorical question expects an answer, “No, I do not,” and has been translated as a declarative statement for clarity and emphasis.