Ulangan 25:15

25:15 You must have an accurate and correct ¹  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.

Ulangan 25:2

25:2 Then, ²  if the guilty person is sentenced to a beating, ³  the judge shall force him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of blows his wicked behavior deserves. ⁴ 

1 Raja-raja 4:23

4:23 ten calves fattened in the stall, ⁵  twenty calves from the pasture, and a hundred sheep, not to mention rams, gazelles, deer, and well-fed birds.

Nehemia 13:15-16

13:15 In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath, bringing in heaps of grain and loading them onto donkeys, along with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, and bringing them to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them on the day that they sold these provisions. 13:16 The people from Tyre ⁶  who lived there were bringing fish and all kinds of merchandise and were selling it on the Sabbath to the people of Judah – and in Jerusalem, of all places! ⁷ 

Yehezkiel 45:10-12

45:10 You must use just balances, ⁸  a just dry measure (an ephah), ⁹  and a just liquid measure (a bath). ¹⁰  45:11 The dry and liquid measures will be the same, the bath will contain a tenth of a homer, ¹¹  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 ¹²  will be a mina for you.

Hosea 12:8

12:8 Ephraim boasts, ¹³  “I am very rich!

I have become wealthy! ¹⁴ 

In all that I have done to gain my wealth, ¹⁵ 

no one can accuse me of any offense ¹⁶  that is actually sinful.” ¹⁷ 

Mikha 6:10-11

6:10 “I will not overlook, ¹⁸  O sinful house, the dishonest gain you have hoarded away, ¹⁹ 

or the smaller-than-standard measure I hate so much. ²⁰ 

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

or a bag of deceptive weights. ²¹ 

Zakharia 5:6

5:6 I asked, “What is it?” And he replied, “It is a basket for measuring grain ²²  that is moving away from here.” Moreover, he said, “This is their ‘eye’ ²³  throughout all the earth.”

[25:15]  ¹ tn Or “just”; Heb “righteous.”

[25:2]  ² tn Heb “and it will be.”

[25:2]  ³ tn Heb “if the evil one is a son of smiting.”

[25:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “according to his wickedness, by number.”

[4:23]  ⁵ tn The words “in the stall” are added for clarification; note the immediately following reference to cattle from the pasture.

[13:16]  ⁶ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[13:16]  ⁷ tn The words “of all places” are not in the Hebrew text but have been supplied in the translation to indicate the emphasis on Jerusalem.

[45:10]  ⁸ sn Previous legislation regarding this practice may be found in Lev 19:35-36; Deut 25:13-16; Mic 6:10-12.

[45:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “ephah,” which was 1/2 bushel.

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

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

[45:12]  ¹² tn Heb “twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, fifteen shekels.”

[12:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “says” (so NAB).

[12:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I have found wealth for myself.” The verb מָצַא (matsa’, “to find”) is repeated in 12:8 to create a wordplay that is difficult to reproduce in translation. The Israelites have “found” (מָצַא) wealth for themselves (i.e., become wealthy; v. 8a) through dishonest business practices (v. 7). Nevertheless, they claim that no guilt can be “found” (מָצַא) in anything they have done in gaining their wealth (v. 8b).

[12:8]  ¹⁵ tc The MT reads the 1st person common singular suffix on the noun יְגִיעַי (yÿgi’ay, “my labors/gains”; masculine plural noun + 1st person common singular suffix). The LXX’s οἱ πόνοι αὐτοῦ ({oi ponoi autou, “his labors”) assumes a 3rd person masculine singular suffix on the noun יְגִיעַיו (yÿgi’av, “his labors/gains”; masculine plural noun + 3rd person masculine singular suffix). The BHS editors suggest adopting the LXX reading. The textual decision is based upon whether or not this line continues the speech of Ephraim (1st person common singular suffix) or whether these are the words of the prophet (3rd person masculine singular suffix). See the following translator’s note for the two rival lexical meanings which in turn lead to the textual options for the line as a whole.

[12:8]  tn Heb “In all my gains/labors.” The noun יְגִיעַ (yÿgi’a) has a two-fold range of meanings: (1) “toil, labor” and (2) metonymical result of toil: “product, produce, gain, acquired property” (i.e., wealth gained by labor; BDB 388 s.v.; HALOT 385-86 s.v.). Normally, only one of the categories of meaning is present in any usage; however, it is possible that intentional semantic ambiguity is present in this usage because the context invokes both ideas: action + wealth.

[12:8]  ¹⁶ tn The phrase מָצָאתִי אוֹן לִי (matsa’ti ’on li, “I have found wealth for myself” = I have become wealthy) forms a wordplay with לֹא יִמְצְאוּ לִי עָוֹן (lo’ yimtsÿ’u li ’avon, “they will not find guilt in me”). The repetition of מָצָא לִי (matsa’ li) is enhanced by the paronomasia between the similar sounding nouns עוֹן (’on, “guilt”) and אוֹן (’on, “wealth”). The wordplay emphasizes that Israel’s acquisition of wealth cannot be divorced from his guilt in dishonest business practices. Israel has difficulty in protesting his innocence that he is not guilty (עוֹן) of the dishonest acquisition of wealth (אוֹן).

[12:8]  ¹⁷ tc The MT reads “[in] all my gains, they will not find guilt in me which would be sin.” The LXX reflects a Hebrew Vorlage which would be translated “in all his labors, he cannot offset his guilt which is sin.” Some translations follow the LXX: “but all his riches can never offset the guilt he has incurred” (RSV); “None of his gains shall atone for the guilt of his sins” (NEB); “All his gain shall not suffice him for the guilt of his sin” (NAB). Most follow the MT: “In all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin” (KJV); “In all my labors they will find in me no iniquity, which would be sin” (NASB); “With all my wealth they will not find in me any iniquity or sin” (NIV); “All my gains do not amount to an offense which is real guilt” (NJPS); “No one can accuse us [sic] of getting rich dishonestly” (TEV); “I earned it all on my own, without committing a sin” (CEV). See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:262-63.

[12:8]  tn Heb “In all my gains/labors, no one can find in me any guilt which is sin.”

[6:10]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the treasures of sin”; NASB “treasures of wickedness”; NIV “ill-gotten treasures.”

[6:10]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ 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.

[5:6]  ²² tn Heb “[This is] the ephah.” An ephah was a liquid or solid measure of about a bushel (five gallons or just under twenty liters). By metonymy it refers here to a measuring container (probably a basket) of that quantity.

[5:6]  ²³ tc The LXX and Syriac read עֲוֹנָם (’avonam, “their iniquity,” so NRSV; NIV similar) for the MT עֵינָם (’enam, “their eye”), a reading that is consistent with the identification of the woman in v. 8 as wickedness, but one that is unnecessary. In 4:10 the “eye” represented divine omniscience and power; here it represents the demonic counterfeit.