A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.
Parallel translations
- WEB A false balance is an abomination to Yahweh, but accurate weights are his delight.
- BSB Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, but an accurate weight is His delight.
- NKJV Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, But a just weight is His delight.
- NASB A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, But a just weight is His delight.
- NLT The Lord detests the use of dishonest scales, but he delights in accurate weights.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God hates dishonest scales but delights in fair weights. Integrity in business and commerce matters deeply to the Lord.
Overview
In an economy of weights and measures, a rigged balance was a common way to cheat, and God names it an 'abomination.' The proverb shows that everyday honesty is a matter of worship, not merely ethics. The God who delights in just dealings is the same God who is perfectly faithful and calls His people to reflect His truthfulness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Deut 25:13–16Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.
- Prov 16:11A just weight and balance are the LORD’s: all the weights of the bag are his work.
- Prov 20:23Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good.
- Lev 19:35–36Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.
- Prov 20:10Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.
- Hos 12:7He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.
- Amos 8:5–6Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
- Ezek 45:10–12Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath.
- Mic 6:10–11Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 11:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.