Deuteronomy 25:13

25:13 You must not have in your bag different stone weights, ¹  a heavy and a light one. ² 

Deuteronomy 25:15

25:15 You must have an accurate and correct ³  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.

Proverbs 11:1

11:1 The Lord abhors ⁴  dishonest scales, ⁵ 

but an accurate weight ⁶  is his delight.

Proverbs 16:11

16:11 Honest scales and balances ⁷  are from the Lord;

all the weights ⁸  in the bag are his handiwork.

Proverbs 20:10

20:10 Diverse weights and diverse measures ⁹  –

the Lord abhors ¹⁰  both of them.

Ezekiel 22:12-13

22:12 They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest; ¹¹  you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me, ¹²  declares the sovereign Lord. ¹³ 

22:13 “‘See, I strike my hands together ¹⁴  at the dishonest profit you have made, and at the bloodshed ¹⁵  they have done among you.

Amos 8:5-6

8:5 You say,

“When will the new moon festival ¹⁶  be over, ¹⁷  so we can sell grain?

When will the Sabbath end, ¹⁸  so we can open up the grain bins? ¹⁹ 

We’re eager ²⁰  to sell less for a higher price, ²¹ 

and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales! ²² 

8:6 We’re eager to trade silver for the poor, ²³ 

a pair of sandals ²⁴  for the needy!

We want to mix in some chaff with the grain!” ²⁵ 

Micah 6:1

The Lord Demands Justice, not Ritual

6:1 Listen to what the Lord says:

“Get up! Defend yourself ²⁶  before the mountains! ²⁷ 

Present your case before the hills!” ²⁸ 

Matthew 7:2

7:2 For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive. ²⁹ 

[25:13]  ¹ 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.

[25:13]  ² 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.

[25:15]  ³ tn Or “just”; Heb “righteous.”

[11:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “an abomination of the Lord.” The term יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) is a subjective genitive.

[11:1]  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).

[11:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “a perfect stone.” Stones were used for measuring amounts of silver on the scales; here the stone that pleases the Lord is whole, complete, perfect (from שָׁלֵם, shalem). It was one that would give an honest, accurate measurement.

[16:11]  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.

[16:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “stones.”

[20:10]  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.”

[20:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “an abomination of the Lord.” The phrase features a subjective genitive: “the Lord abhors.”

[22:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “usury and interest you take.” See 18:13, 17. This kind of economic exploitation violated the law given in Lev 25:36.

[22:12]  ¹² sn Forgetting the Lord is also addressed in Deut 6:12; 8:11, 14; Jer 3:21; 13:25; Ezek 23:35; Hos 2:15; 8:14; 13:6.

[22:12]  ¹³ tn The second person verb forms are feminine singular in Hebrew, indicating that the personified city is addressed here as representing its citizens.

[22:13]  ¹⁴ sn This gesture apparently expresses mourning and/or anger (see 6:11; 21:14, 17).

[22:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the blood which was in you.”

[8:5]  ¹⁶ sn Apparently work was prohibited during the new moon festival, just as it was on the Sabbath.

[8:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “pass by.”

[8:5]  ¹⁸ tn The verb, though omitted in the Hebrew text, is supplied in the translation from the parallel line.

[8:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “sell grain.” Here “grain” could stand by metonymy for the bins where it was stored.

[8:5]  ²⁰ tn Here and in v. 6 the words “we’re eager” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:5]  ²¹ 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.

[8:5]  ²² tn Heb “and to cheat with deceptive scales”; NASB, NIV “dishonest scales”; NRSV “false balances.”

[8:6]  ²³ tn Heb “to buy the poor for silver.”

[8:6]  ²⁴ tn See the note on the word “sandals” in 2:6.

[8:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “The chaff of the grain we will sell.”

[6:1]  ²⁶ tn Or “plead your case” (NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “present your plea”; NLT “state your case.”

[6:1]  ²⁷ sn As in some ancient Near Eastern treaties, the mountains are personified as legal witnesses that will settle the dispute between God and Israel.

[6:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “let the hills hear your voice.”

[7:2]  ²⁹ tn Grk “by [the measure] with which you measure it will be measured to you.”