Imamat 19:35-36

19:35 You must not do injustice in the regulation of measures, whether of length, weight, or volume. ¹  19:36 You must have honest balances, ²  honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. ³  I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt.

Amsal 11:1

11:1 The Lord abhors ⁴  dishonest scales, ⁵ 

but an accurate weight ⁶  is his delight.

Amsal 16:11

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

all the weights ⁸  in the bag are his handiwork.

Amsal 20:10

20:10 Diverse weights and diverse measures ⁹  –

the Lord abhors ¹⁰  both of them.

Yehezkiel 45:10-11

45:10 You must use just balances, ¹¹  a just dry measure (an ephah), ¹²  and a just liquid measure (a bath). ¹³  45:11 The dry and liquid measures will be the same, the bath will contain a tenth of a homer, ¹⁴  and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer will be the standard measure.

Amos 8:5

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 

Mikha 6:11-12

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

or a bag of deceptive weights. ²² 

6:12 The city’s rich men think nothing of resorting to violence; ²³ 

her inhabitants lie, ²⁴ 

their tongues speak deceptive words. ²⁵ 

[19:35]  ¹ tn That is, liquid capacity (HALOT 640 s.v. מְשׂוּרָה). Cf. ASV, NIV, NRSV, TEV “quantity”; NAB, NASB “capacity.”

[19:36]  ² tn Heb “balances of righteousness,” and so throughout this sentence.

[19:36]  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).

[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.”

[20:10]  sn Behind this proverb is the image of the dishonest merchant who has different sets of weights and measures which are used to cheat customers. The Lord hates dishonesty in business transactions.

[45:10]  ¹¹ sn Previous legislation regarding this practice may be found in Lev 19:35-36; Deut 25:13-16; Mic 6:10-12.

[45:10]  ¹² tn Heb “ephah,” which was 1/2 bushel.

[45:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “bath,” a liquid measure, was 5 1/2 gallons.

[45:11]  ¹⁴ sn The homer was about 5 bushels as a dry measure and 55 gallons as a liquid measure.

[8:5]  ¹⁵ sn Apparently work was prohibited during the new moon festival, just as it was on the Sabbath.

[8:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “pass by.”

[8:5]  ¹⁷ tn The verb, though omitted in the Hebrew text, is supplied in the translation from the parallel line.

[8:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “sell grain.” Here “grain” could stand by metonymy for the bins where it was stored.

[8:5]  ¹⁹ tn Here and in v. 6 the words “we’re eager” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:5]  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.

[8:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “and to cheat with deceptive scales”; NASB, NIV “dishonest scales”; NRSV “false balances.”

[8:5]  sn Rigged scales may refer to bending the crossbar or shifting the center point of the scales to make the amount weighed appear heavier than it actually was, thus cheating the buyer.

[6:11]  ²² 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.

[6:11]  sn Merchants also used rigged scales and deceptive weights to cheat their customers. See the note at Amos 8:5.

[6:12]  ²³ tn Heb “because her rich are full of violence.”

[6:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “speak lies.”

[6:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and their tongue is deceptive in their mouth.”