Leviticus 19:36
Context19:36 You must have honest balances, 1 honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. 2 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 25:13-16
Context25:13 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.
Proverbs 11:1
Context11:1 The Lord abhors 8 dishonest scales, 9
but an accurate weight 10 is his delight.
Proverbs 16:11
Context16:11 Honest scales and balances 11 are from the Lord;
all the weights 12 in the bag are his handiwork.
Proverbs 20:23
Context20:23 The Lord abhors 13 differing weights,
and dishonest scales are wicked. 14
Ezekiel 45:10-12
Context45:10 You must use just balances, 15 a just dry measure (an ephah), 16 and a just liquid measure (a bath). 17 45:11 The dry and liquid measures will be the same, the bath will contain a tenth of a homer, 18 and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer will be the standard measure. 45:12 The shekel will be twenty gerahs. Sixty shekels 19 will be a mina for you.
Micah 6:10-11
Context6:10 “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
[19:36] 1 tn Heb “balances of righteousness,” and so throughout this sentence.
[19:36] 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).
[25:13] 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.
[25:13] 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.
[25:14] 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.
[25:15] 6 tn Or “just”; Heb “righteous.”
[25:16] 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.
[11:1] 8 tn Heb “an abomination of the
[11:1] 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).
[11:1] 10 tn Heb “a perfect stone.” Stones were used for measuring amounts of silver on the scales; here the stone that pleases the
[16:11] 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.
[20:23] 13 tn Heb “an abomination of the
[20:23] 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).
[45:10] 15 sn Previous legislation regarding this practice may be found in Lev 19:35-36; Deut 25:13-16; Mic 6:10-12.
[45:10] 16 tn Heb “ephah,” which was 1/2 bushel.
[45:10] 17 tn Heb “bath,” a liquid measure, was 5 1/2 gallons.
[45:11] 18 sn The homer was about 5 bushels as a dry measure and 55 gallons as a liquid measure.
[45:12] 19 tn Heb “twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, fifteen shekels.”
[6:10] 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.”
[6:10] 21 tn Heb “the treasures of sin”; NASB “treasures of wickedness”; NIV “ill-gotten treasures.”
[6:10] 22 tn Heb “the accursed scant measure.”
[6:11] 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.