Proverbs 11:1

11:1 The Lord abhors ¹  dishonest scales, ² 

but an accurate weight ³  is his delight.

Proverbs 20:10

20:10 Diverse weights and diverse measures ⁴  –

the Lord abhors ⁵  both of them.

Proverbs 20:23

20:23 The Lord abhors ⁶  differing weights,

and dishonest scales are wicked. ⁷ 

Leviticus 19:35-36

19:35 You must not do injustice in the regulation of measures, whether of length, weight, or volume. ⁸  19:36 You must have honest balances, ⁹  honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. ¹⁰  I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 25:13-15

25:13 You must not have in your bag different stone weights, ¹¹  a heavy and a light one. ¹²  25:14 You must not have in your house different measuring containers, ¹³  a large and a small one. 25:15 You must have an accurate and correct ¹⁴  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.

Ezekiel 45:10

45:10 You must use just balances, ¹⁵  a just dry measure (an ephah), ¹⁶  and a just liquid measure (a bath). ¹⁷ 

Hosea 12:7

The Lord Refutes Israel’s False Claim of Innocence

12:7 The businessmen love to cheat; ¹⁸ 

they use dishonest scales. ¹⁹ 

Amos 8:5

8:5 You say,

“When will the new moon festival ²⁰  be over, ²¹  so we can sell grain?

When will the Sabbath end, ²²  so we can open up the grain bins? ²³ 

We’re eager ²⁴  to sell less for a higher price, ²⁵ 

and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales! ²⁶ 

Micah 6:11

6:11 I do not condone the use of rigged scales,

or a bag of deceptive weights. ²⁷ 

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

[11:1]  ² 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]  ³ 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.

[20:10]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “an abomination of the Lord.” The phrase features a subjective genitive: “the Lord abhors.”

[20:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “an abomination of the Lord.” This expression features a subjective genitive: “the Lord abhors.”

[20:23]  ⁷ 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).

[19:35]  ⁸ tn That is, liquid capacity (HALOT 640 s.v. מְשׂוּרָה). Cf. ASV, NIV, NRSV, TEV “quantity”; NAB, NASB “capacity.”

[19:36]  ⁹ tn Heb “balances of righteousness,” and so throughout this sentence.

[19:36]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Or “just”; Heb “righteous.”

[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.

[12:7]  ¹⁸ 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).

[12:7]  ¹⁹ 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.

[8:5]  ²⁰ sn Apparently work was prohibited during the new moon festival, just as it was on the Sabbath.

[8:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “pass by.”

[8:5]  ²² tn The verb, though omitted in the Hebrew text, is supplied in the translation from the parallel line.

[8:5]  ²³ tn Heb “sell grain.” Here “grain” could stand by metonymy for the bins where it was stored.

[8:5]  ²⁴ tn Here and in v. 6 the words “we’re eager” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:5]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and to cheat with deceptive scales”; NASB, NIV “dishonest scales”; NRSV “false balances.”

[6:11]  ²⁷ 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.