A just weight and balance are the LORD’s: all the weights of the bag are his work.
Parallel translations
- WEB Honest balances and scales are Yahweh’s; all the weights in the bag are his work.
- BSB Honest scales and balances are from the LORD; all the weights in the bag are His concern.
- NKJV Honest weights and scales are the Lord’s; All the weights in the bag are His work.
- NASB A just balance and scales belong to the Lord; All the weights of the bag are His concern.
- NLT The Lord demands accurate scales and balances; he sets the standards for fairness.
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
Honest weights and measures belong to the Lord and reflect His standard. It matters because God Himself stands behind fairness and integrity in commerce.
Overview
This proverb roots commercial honesty in God, declaring just balances and weights to be His. Cheating in trade is therefore an offense against the Lord, not merely against neighbors (cf. Leviticus 19:35-36). It reveals that everyday economic integrity is part of true worship and reverence for God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Prov 11:1A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.
- Prov 20:10Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.
- Prov 20:23Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good.
- Deut 25:13–15Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.
- Lev 19:35–36Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.
- Ezek 45:10Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath.
- Hos 12:7He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.
- Amos 8:5Saying, 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?
- Mic 6:11Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?
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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 16:11 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.