Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.
Parallel translations
- WEB Differing weights and differing measures, both of them alike are an abomination to Yahweh.
- BSB Differing weights and unequal measures—both are detestable to the LORD.
- NKJV Diverse weights and diverse measures, They are both alike, an abomination to the Lord.
- NASB Differing weights and differing measures, Both of them are abominable to the Lord.
- NLT False weights and unequal measures— the Lord detests double standards of every kind.
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
Cheating with rigged weights and measures is detestable to God. It matters because the Lord cares about honesty and justice in everyday business.
Overview
Merchants could defraud customers by using one set of weights to buy and another to sell. The Lord calls such dishonesty an 'abomination,' showing that worship and ethics are inseparable. God's own justice and integrity are the standard, and the law repeatedly forbade false measures (Leviticus 19:35-36; Deuteronomy 25:13-16).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Prov 20:23Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good.
- Prov 11:1A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.
- Mic 6:10–11Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?
- Prov 16:11A just weight and balance are the LORD’s: all the weights of the bag are his work.
- Deut 25:13–15Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.
- Lev 19:35Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.
- Amos 8:4–7Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
- Rev 21:8But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
- Deut 7:25–26The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.
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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 20:10 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
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