Micah 6:11
in Micah 6Can I excuse dishonest scales or bags of false weights?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Shall I be pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful weights?
KJV
Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?
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This verse in Micah 6
Commentary
7 notes on this verse(Verse 10 and following). Listen, you who are wise, and who will approve of it? The fire is still burning in the house of the wicked, the treasure of impiety, and the measure of anger is not yet full. Shall I justify the wicked scales and the deceitful weights of the bag? In them, her rich ones are filled with iniquity, and those who dwell in her speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. And so I have begun to strike you with destruction because of your sins.
This site's exposition
The Lord’s voice crieth unto the city
on Micah 6:9-12
The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, addressed now directly to Jerusalem or Samaria, and the man of wisdom is told to see thy name, hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it, the coming judgment named before it is described. The specific charge follows, treasures of wickedness kept in the house of the wicked, the scant measure that is abominable, wicked balances and a bag of deceitful weights, violations of the law's own standard for honest trade (Leviticus 19:35-36, Deuteronomy 25:13-15). The rich men are full of violence, the inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth, commercial injustice named as the covenant's specific complaint rather than a general charge of unbelief.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances,....
No; this is a sin which will by no means consist with a profession of purity. Those that are dishonest in their dealings have not the spots of God's children, and shall never be reckoned pure, whatever shows of devotion they may make.
(4.) Those that had wealth and power in their hands abused it to oppression and extortion; The rich men thereof are full of violence; for those that have much would have more, and are in a capacity of making it more by the power which their abundance of wealth gives them. They are full of violence, that is, they have their houses full of that which is got by violence.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Shall I count them pure? - Rather, (as the English margin) “Shall I be pure?” The prophet takes for the time their person and bids them judge themselves in him. If it would defile me, how are ye, with all your other sins, not defiled? All these things were expressly forbidden in the law. “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in mete-yard, in weight or in measure. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just him, shall ye have” Lev 19:35-36; and, “Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
With the pure God shows Himself pure; but with the froward God shows Himself froward (Ps 18:26). Men often are changeable in their judgments. But God, in the case of the impure who use "wicked balances," cannot be pure, that is, cannot deal with them as He would with the pure.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Proverbs 16:11Honest scales and balances are from the LORD; all the weights in the bag are His concern.
it leads to
- Proverbs 11:1
Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, but an accurate weight is His delight.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 20:10
Differing weights and unequal measures—both are detestable to the LORD.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 20:23
Unequal weights are detestable to the LORD, and dishonest scales are no good.
- Proverbs 11:1
Through
Leviticus 19:36You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 25:13–15
You shall not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Exodus 20:2
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
- Deuteronomy 25:13–15
Through
Hosea 12:7A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands.
it leads to
- Amos 8:5–6
asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us…
- Micah 6:10–11
Can I forget any longer, O house of the wicked, the treasures of wickedness and the short ephah, which is accursed?
- Isaiah 3:5
The people will oppress one another, man against man, neighbor against neighbor; the young will rise up against the old, and the base against the honorable.
- Amos 8:5–6
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
About Micah
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Micah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.