Amsal 16:11

16:11 Honest scales and balances ¹  are from the Lord;

all the weights ²  in the bag are his handiwork.

Amsal 20:10

20:10 Diverse weights and diverse measures ³  –

the Lord abhors ⁴  both of them.

Amsal 20:23

20:23 The Lord abhors ⁵  differing weights,

and dishonest scales are wicked. ⁶ 

Imamat 19:35-36

19:35 You must not do injustice in the regulation of measures, whether of length, weight, or volume. ⁷  19:36 You must have honest balances, ⁸  honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. ⁹  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, ¹⁰  a heavy and a light one. ¹¹  25:14 You must not have in your house different measuring containers, ¹²  a large and a small one. 25:15 You must have an accurate and correct ¹³  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 ¹⁴  to the Lord your God.

Hosea 12:7

The Lord Refutes Israel’s False Claim of Innocence

12:7 The businessmen love to cheat; ¹⁵ 

they use dishonest scales. ¹⁶ 

Amos 8:5-6

8:5 You say,

“When will the new moon festival ¹⁷  be over, ¹⁸  so we can sell grain?

When will the Sabbath end, ¹⁹  so we can open up the grain bins? ²⁰ 

We’re eager ²¹  to sell less for a higher price, ²² 

and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales! ²³ 

8:6 We’re eager to trade silver for the poor, ²⁴ 

a pair of sandals ²⁵  for the needy!

We want to mix in some chaff with the grain!” ²⁶ 

Mikha 6:10-11

6:10 “I will not overlook, ²⁷  O sinful house, the dishonest gain you have hoarded away, ²⁸ 

or the smaller-than-standard measure I hate so much. ²⁹ 

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

or a bag of deceptive weights. ³⁰ 

[16:11]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “stones.”

[20:10]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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.

[20:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “an abomination of the Lord.” This expression features a subjective genitive: “the Lord abhors.”

[20:23]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn That is, liquid capacity (HALOT 640 s.v. מְשׂוּרָה). Cf. ASV, NIV, NRSV, TEV “quantity”; NAB, NASB “capacity.”

[19:36]  ⁸ tn Heb “balances of righteousness,” and so throughout this sentence.

[19:36]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Or “just”; Heb “righteous.”

[25:16]  ¹⁴ 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.

[12:7]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ sn Apparently work was prohibited during the new moon festival, just as it was on the Sabbath.

[8:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “pass by.”

[8:5]  ¹⁹ tn The verb, though omitted in the Hebrew text, is supplied in the translation from the parallel line.

[8:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “sell grain.” Here “grain” could stand by metonymy for the bins where it was stored.

[8:5]  ²¹ tn Here and in v. 6 the words “we’re eager” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:5]  ²² 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]  ²³ 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.

[8:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “to buy the poor for silver.”

[8:6]  sn The expression trade silver for the poor refers to the slave trade.

[8:6]  ²⁵ tn See the note on the word “sandals” in 2:6.

[8:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “The chaff of the grain we will sell.”

[6:10]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the treasures of sin”; NASB “treasures of wickedness”; NIV “ill-gotten treasures.”

[6:10]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ 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.