25:13 You must not have in your bag different stone weights, 3 a heavy and a light one. 4 25:14 You must not have in your house different measuring containers, 5 a large and a small one. 25:15 You must have an accurate and correct 6 stone weight and an accurate and correct measuring container, so that your life may be extended in the land the Lord your God is about to give you. 25:16 For anyone who acts dishonestly in these ways is abhorrent 7 to the Lord your God.
11:1 The Lord abhors 8 dishonest scales, 9
but an accurate weight 10 is his delight.
16:11 Honest scales and balances 11 are from the Lord;
all the weights 12 in the bag are his handiwork.
20:23 The Lord abhors 13 differing weights,
and dishonest scales are wicked. 14
6:10 “I will not overlook, 20 O sinful house, the dishonest gain you have hoarded away, 21
or the smaller-than-standard measure I hate so much. 22
6:11 I do not condone the use of rigged scales,
or a bag of deceptive weights. 23
1 tn Heb “balances of righteousness,” and so throughout this sentence.
2 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).
3 tn Heb “a stone and a stone.” The repetition of the singular noun here expresses diversity, as the following phrase indicates. See IBHS 116 §7.2.3c.
4 tn Heb “a large and a small,” but since the issue is the weight, “a heavy and a light one” conveys the idea better in English.
5 tn Heb “an ephah and an ephah.” An ephah refers to a unit of dry measure roughly equivalent to five U.S. gallons (just under 20 liters). On the repetition of the term to indicate diversity, see IBHS 116 §7.2.3c.
6 tn Or “just”; Heb “righteous.”
7 tn The Hebrew term translated here “abhorrent” (תּוֹעֵבָה, to’evah) speaks of attitudes and/or behaviors so vile as to be reprehensible to a holy God. See note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.
8 tn Heb “an abomination of the
9 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).
10 tn Heb “a perfect stone.” Stones were used for measuring amounts of silver on the scales; here the stone that pleases the
11 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.
12 tn Heb “stones.”
13 tn Heb “an abomination of the
14 tn Heb “not good.” This is a figure known as tapeinosis – a deliberate understatement to emphasize a worst-case scenario: “it is wicked!” (e.g., 11:1; 20:10).
15 sn Previous legislation regarding this practice may be found in Lev 19:35-36; Deut 25:13-16; Mic 6:10-12.
16 tn Heb “ephah,” which was 1/2 bushel.
17 tn Heb “bath,” a liquid measure, was 5 1/2 gallons.
18 sn The homer was about 5 bushels as a dry measure and 55 gallons as a liquid measure.
19 tn Heb “twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, fifteen shekels.”
20 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.”
21 tn Heb “the treasures of sin”; NASB “treasures of wickedness”; NIV “ill-gotten treasures.”
22 tn Heb “the accursed scant measure.”
23 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.