Skip to content
mannafest.faith

Proverbs 20:10

in Proverbs 20

Differing weights and unequal measures—both are detestable to the LORD.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

Diverse weights, and diverse measures, Both of them alike are an abomination to Jehovah.

KJV

Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the Lord.

This verse in Proverbs 20

Commentary

9 notes on this verse

A commentator

Ambrose of Milan

On the Duties of the Clergy 3.9.65 · Written before 397.

Every kind of unfair action is shameful. Even in common things, false weights and unjust measures are accursed. And if fraud in the market or in business is punished, can it seem free from reproach if found in the midst of the performance of the duties of virtue?

This site's exposition

Divers weights, and divers measures

on Proverbs 20:10-12

Divers weights, and divers measures opens the chapter's commerce theme with the market scale, called an abomination here and again at verse 23, framing the material between under the same standard. Even a child is known by his doings carries that standard from the marketplace into character, conduct legible from an early age. The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them closes the cluster with the reason the standard holds: the one who made the organs of perception is not fooled by what they report.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers3 voices

A commentator

Basil of Caesarea

HOMILY ON THE BEGINNING OF PROVERBS 9 · Written before 379.

proposed

If there were two persons to be judged, one being given more consideration and the other less consideration, with a judge standing between both and making them equal by depriving only the one who has more than enough, the judge can be said to have failed to the extent that the adjudged party is injured. He who does not first have true justice instilled in his soul, but is corrupted by money or favors his friends or seeks vengeance against his enemies or reveres power, is unable to effect justice.… For rectitude in judgment is evidence that someone's soul is well disposed toward equity and law. Hence, it prohibits this in what follows, saying, "Large weights and small weights are abominable before God," with inequality in judgment being indicated in Proverbs under the title of weights.

A commentator

John Cassian

CONFERENCE 21:22 · Written before 435.

proposed

And the giver of the law similarly forbids the same thing, saying: "Let the balance be just and the weights equal, the bushel just and the sextarius equal," and Solomon also gives a like opinion on this matter: "Great and small weights and double measures are both unclean before the Lord, and one who uses them shall be hindered in his contrivances." Further not only in the way in which we have said, but also in this must we strive not to have unfair weights in our hearts, nor double measures in the storehouse of our conscience, i.e., not to overwhelm those, to whom we are to preach the word of the Lord, with precepts that are too strict and heavier than we ourselves can bear, while we take for granted that for ourselves those things which have to do with the rule of strictness are to be softened by a freer allowance of relaxation. For when we do this, what is it but to weigh and measure the goods and fruits of the Lord's commands in a double weight and measure? For if we dispense them in one way to ourselves and in another to our brethren, we are rightly blamed by the Lord because we have unfair balances and double measures, in accordance with the saying of Solomon which tells us that "A double weight is an abomination to the Lord, and a deceitful balance is not good in His sight." In this way also we plainly incur the guilt of using a deceitful weight and a double measure, if out of the desire for the praise of men, we make a show before the brethren of greater strictness than what we practice in private in our own cells, trying to appear more abstinent and holier in the sight of men than in the sight of God, an evil which we should not only avoid but actually loathe.

A commentator

Ambrose of Milan

Concerning Widows 13:78 · Written before 397.

proposed

He who commands must always keep to the exact scope of the commandments, and he who distributes tasks must observe equity in looking into them, for "a false balance is an abomination to the Lord." There is, then, an excess and a defect in weight, but the church acccepts neither, for "excessive and defective weights and diverse measures, both of them are alike abominable in the sight of the Lord."

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Bede

Commentary on Proverbs · Written before 735.

proposed

Diverse weights, diverse measures, etc. For a man with diverse weights in his house has different measures, that is he measures differently for himself and for his neighbor, who always seeks in his own deeds what can be praised, but in others' deeds what can …

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

Divers weights, and divers measures,.... Or, "a stone and a stone, and an ephah and an ephah" (d).
2 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Divers weights and divers measures - A peise and a peise; - Old MS. Bible: from the French pois, weight. Hebrew: “A stone and a stone; an ephah and an ephah.” One the standard, the other below it; one to buy with, the other to sell by.
See Pro 11:1: Here perhaps, as a companion to Pro 20:9, with a wider application to all judging one man by rules which we do not apply to ourselves or to another.

The words behind it

8 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • אֶ֣בֶןa weight

    ʾevenH68273 times

  • וָ֭אֶבֶןand a weight

    vaevenH68273 times

  • אֵיפָ֣הa measure

    ʾeifahH374

  • וְאֵיפָ֑הand a measure

    veeifahH374

  • תּוֹעֲבַ֥ת[are] [the] abomination of

    toavatH8441117 times

  • יְ֝הוָ֗הYahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

  • גַּם־also

    gam-H1571769 times

  • שְׁנֵיהֶֽם׃both of them

    sheneihemH8147768 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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 11:1

    Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, but an accurate weight is His delight.

    it leads to

    • Proverbs 16:11

      Honest scales and balances are from the LORD; all the weights in the bag are His concern.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Deuteronomy 25:13–16

      You shall not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light.

    • Hosea 12:7

      A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Proverbs 20:23

      Unequal weights are detestable to the LORD, and dishonest scales are no good.

    • Leviticus 19:35–36

      You must not use dishonest measures of length, weight, or volume.

  • Through

    Proverbs 20:23

    Unequal weights are detestable to the LORD, and dishonest scales are no good.

    it leads to

    • Proverbs 11:1

      Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, but an accurate weight is His delight.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Ezekiel 45:10

      You must use honest scales, a just ephah, and a just bath.

    • Amos 8:5

      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…

Where this verse is studied

About Proverbs

King Solomon in Old Age, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
King Solomon in Old Age, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy 3.9.65; Ambrose of Milan, Concerning Widows 13:78; Basil of Caesarea, HOMILY ON THE BEGINNING OF PROVERBS 9; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; John Cassian, CONFERENCE 21:22; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).