Proverbs 16:11 - Exposition

A just weight and balance are the Lord's ( Proverbs 11:1 ); literally, the balance and scales of justice ( are ) the Lord ' s. They come under his law, are subject to the Divine ordinances which regulate all man's dealings. The great principles of truth end justice govern all the transactions of buying and selling; religion enters into the business of trading, and weights and measures are sacred things. Vulgate, "The weights and the balance are judgments of the Lord;" being true and fair, they are regarded as God's judgment. Septuagint, "The turn of the balance is justice before God." All the weights of the bag are his work. Some have round a difficulty here, because the bag may contain false as well as true weights ( Deuteronomy 25:13 ), and it could not be said that the light weights were the Lord's work. This surely is captious criticism. The maxim merely states that the trader's weights take their origin and authority from God's enactment, from certain eternal principles which he has established. What man's chicanery and fraud make of them does not come into view. (For the law that regulates such matters, see Le 19:35, etc.) That cheating in this respect was not uncommon we learn from the complaints of the prophets, as Micah 6:11 . The religious character of the standard weights and measures is shown by the term "shekel of the sanctuary" ( Exodus 38:24 , and elsewhere continually).