Imamat 19:36

19:36 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.

Ulangan 25:13-16

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.

Amsal 11:1

11:1 The Lord abhors ⁸  dishonest scales, ⁹ 

but an accurate weight ¹⁰  is his delight.

Amsal 16:11

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

all the weights ¹²  in the bag are his handiwork.

Amsal 20:23

20:23 The Lord abhors ¹³  differing weights,

and dishonest scales are wicked. ¹⁴ 

Yehezkiel 45:10-12

45:10 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.

Mikha 6:10-11

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 

[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 Lord.” The term יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) is a subjective genitive.

[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 Lord is whole, complete, perfect (from שָׁלֵם, shalem). It was one that would give an honest, accurate measurement.

[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.

[16:11]  ¹² tn Heb “stones.”

[20:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “an abomination of the Lord.” This expression features a subjective genitive: “the Lord abhors.”

[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.”

[6:10]  sn Merchants would use a smaller than standard measure so they could give the customer less than he thought he was paying for.

[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.

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