Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.
Deuteronomy 25 collects everyday rules, and this one reaches into the bag where a trader kept the stone weights for his scales. Why would the Maker of heaven and earth care what is in a bag of stones?
The law targets the equipment, not just the act: two different weights sitting in one bag. One writer spells out how the trick worked:
Having two different weights is forbidden. One is large, the other small. One is used for selling, the other for buying, so that the owner can cheat the person he deals with. Weights and measures must be perfect and just. One pound is to be exactly one pound, one yard exactly one yard. Strict honesty in such things would lengthen the days of an Israelite in the land. More than this, God calls those who break such rules of honesty "an abomination to the LORD your God." God takes full account.
Cheating with weights is not a slip in a moment of anger. It is planned. One writer shows why that makes the wrong worse:
Unfair scales and weights make the wrong far worse, because it is not a passing act but a deliberate one. It is the same when solids and liquids are measured by a false standard. The least things of daily life fall under His eye.
A rigged scale is not just theft. It is theft that presents itself as honest measuring. That double character is what makes God call it something He hates:
"A false balance" is much more than an act of dishonesty. It claims to be honest, and at the same time it plans to cheat. So it is an abomination to Him whose eyes see and test the children of men, while a just weight is His delight. Trickery in trade is a corroding evil, most of all fatal to those who gain a stained or a hardened conscience.
Israel later turned this very fraud into a way of life. One writer traces it back to its root:
The Lord calls unfaithful Israel a merchant. The Hebrew word is "Canaan," which means trade. They had become Canaanites, holding scales of deceit and loving to oppress. They had become fraudulent merchants, by cheating and oppression. They had forsaken Jehovah, and their wrong attitude towards Him led to a wrong attitude towards other people. Instead of repenting they boasted that they had grown rich. They were breaking the law all the time. Yet in all their lawbreaking they prided themselves on being a righteous nation.
Few of us carry stone weights, but every trade has its accepted shortcuts. One writer answers the usual defence:
A man who puts cardboard into shoes and sells them as leather is unworthy of the name of Christian. He is not even an honest man. Someone may say, "It is the custom of the trade." Well, how does that change anything for a person who wants to walk in the fear of God and keep a good conscience? It may be the custom of the trade to put poor yarn into cloth, or water into the milk. But can a Christian, or even an honest man, do such things? Certainly not. The Word of God must govern a Christian's conscience, not the custom of the trade. Lose sight of this, and there is an end to all practical Christianity in commercial life.
The command also pictures something about God Himself. One writer turns it on the way we measure ourselves next to everyone else:
God's standard for practical holiness is always one. He has not two standards, as we often have: one for ourselves, perhaps, and another for others. God abhors different weights and measures. When He measures human righteousness, He does so by one standard, absolute perfection.
- Two weights, one bag — one weight for buying and another for selling let a trader cheat both ways. God bans the equipment, not just the act.
- One eye on small things — a rigged scale is a planned, standing wrong. Even the least details of daily life fall under God's eye.
- One pretence exposed — a false balance claims to be honest while it plans to cheat. God calls it an abomination, and a just weight His delight.
- One root, one fruit — Israel forsook the Lord, and scales of deceit followed. Still they called themselves a righteous nation.
- One standard, everywhere — the custom of the trade cannot set a Christian's conscience. God keeps no second measure, in trade or in the way we judge others and ourselves.
Thou shalt not have in thy house divers ephahs, a great and a small.
One measure for buying, a smaller one for selling — the cheat was simple, and this law shuts it out of the house. What looks like a small rule about shopkeeping touches honesty in business, fairness in judging people, and the standard God Himself uses.
The fraud is simple, and the commentary spells out how it worked — and how the same trick can be played with people rather than produce.
Two different weights are forbidden. One is large, the other small. One is for selling, the other for buying, so the owner can cheat the other party (v.14). The same is true in spiritual things. We should be careful not to have one measure of judgment for one case and another measure for a different case. Weights and measures must be perfect and just. One pound is to be exactly one pound, one yard exactly one yard. Strict honesty in such things would lengthen the days of an Israelite in the land (v.15). More than that, God calls those who break these rules of honesty "an abomination to the Lord your God." God takes full account.
Why does God treat a false scale so seriously? One writer points to the deliberate nature of the fraud.
Unfair scales and weights make the wrong far worse, because it is not a passing fault but a deliberate one. It is the same when the measures for solids and liquids are rigged... The smallest things of daily life fall under His eye.
Traders excuse short measure by saying that everyone does it. One writer refuses the excuse.
A man who puts cardboard into shoes and sells them as leather is unworthy of the name of Christian. He is not even an honest man. Someone may tell us, "It is the custom of the trade." Well, how does that change anything for a man who wants to walk in the fear of God and keep a good conscience? ... The Word of God must govern a Christian's conscience, not the custom of the trade. If we lose sight of this, practical Christianity in business is at an end.
Israel went on breaking this law. One writer traces the cheating back to its root, and notes that the cheats still counted themselves a righteous nation.
They had become dishonest merchants who cheated and oppressed people. They had forsaken the Lord. That wrong attitude towards Him led to a wrong attitude towards other people. Instead of repenting they boasted, "Ah, but I am rich; I have found wealth for myself." They broke the law again and again (Lev. 19:36 and Deut. 25:13-16). Yet in all their lawbreaking they took pride in being a righteous nation.
The verse also turns inward. One writer finds that we weigh people with scales we have never checked.
We are not always skilled at using the scales, the weights and measures of the sanctuary... Our moral sense, our natural conscience, self-righteousness, the laws of society and the judgments of people supply us with false weights and measures. We carry them around with us more than we know. But they are an abomination. Deut. 25:16. In our thoughts, the way of the prostitute and the tax collector is worse than the easy, respectable path of the world. If we had the scales of the sanctuary, we would weigh things differently.
Two measures are hateful to God, so He does not keep two Himself.
God hates two different measures. He does not measure His blessed Son's walk by one standard and His people's walk by another. He pities us and has compassion on us. He has grace to pardon our sins and mercy to help us in our weakness. But His holiness will not let Him lower that perfect standard of holiness by the smallest fraction. The walk of our blessed Lord Jesus marks out the full measure for us.
- One weight, always. A pound must be a pound and a yard a yard. God calls a big weight for buying and a small one for selling an abomination.
- One weight in the shop. Deliberate fraud is worse than a passing fault. Nothing in daily business is too small for God's eye.
- One weight against custom. "It is the custom of the trade" settles nothing. God's Word must govern conscience, or practical Christianity in business is at an end.
- One weight in judging. We must not use one measure of judgment for one case and another for the next. The scales of respectability that society hands us are themselves an abomination.
- One weight in God. He does not measure His Son's walk by one standard and ours by another. He pardons and helps us in weakness, but never lowers the standard.
A perfect and just weight shalt thou have; a perfect and just ephah shalt thou have; that thy days may be prolonged in the land that Jehovah thy God giveth thee.
Deuteronomy 25 ends its list of everyday rules with the weights and measures a trader carries in his bag. God ties long life in the land to an honest weight — so why does His blessing rest on the accuracy of a shopkeeper's scales?
The verses before this ban two weights in one bag — a heavy one and a light one — which let a trader gain on both ends of a deal. This verse demands exactness, and ties length of days to it.
It is forbidden to have two different weights: one large, the other small — one for selling, the other for buying — so that the owner can cheat the other party. Weights and measures must be perfect and just. One pound is to be precisely one pound, one yard precisely one yard. Strict honesty in such things would lengthen the days of an Israelite in the land. More than this, God calls those who break such rules of honesty "an abomination to the Lord your God." God takes full account.
A rigged scale is not a moment of weakness. It takes planning, and it wears the mask of honesty.
"A false balance" is much more than a dishonest act. It pretends to integrity, and carries with it a deliberate purpose to cheat. So it is an abomination to Him. His eyes see and His eyelids test the children of men, and a just weight is His delight. Trickery in trade is a corroding evil, most of all fatal to those who gain a stained or a hardened conscience.
It can seem strange that the God who gave laws about sacrifice also made rules about baskets and stones. But the small size of the matter is the point.
Unfair scales and weights make the wrong far worse, and so does a false standard for solids and liquids. This is not a passing fault but a deliberate one. "Therefore you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the LORD." The least things of daily life fall under His eye.
God's own people later fell into the fraud this verse forbids. One writer traces it back to how they treated God.
They had become Canaanites with the balances of deceit, loving to oppress. They had become fraudulent merchants, by cheating and oppression. They had forsaken Jehovah, and their wrong attitude towards Him led to a wrong attitude towards their fellow men. Instead of repenting they boasted, "I am rich, I have found wealth for myself." They broke the law again and again. Yet in all their lawbreaking they prided themselves on being a righteous nation.
Scales weigh goods, but the same picture fits how we judge people. Grant warns against having "one measure of judgment for a certain case and another measure for another case." Another writer takes it further:
We are not always practised, skilful weighers in the use of the balances, the weights and measures of the sanctuary. The moral sense, the natural conscience, self-righteousness, the laws of society, and the judgments of men supply us with false weights and measures. We carry them about with us more than we know. But they are an abomination. In our thoughts, the way of the prostitute and the tax collector is worse than the easy, respectable course of the world. If we had the balances of the sanctuary, we would assess things differently.
Paul draws on Deuteronomy 25 in 1 Corinthians 9, and one writer takes that as a signal about how to read these old rules — with a warning attached against reading too much into them.
The way in which Deuteronomy 25 is quoted here leads us to expect that we shall find in the law, both contained and illustrated, many a principle of conduct which the New Testament requires of us as well pleasing to God. There is nothing surprising in this, for God Himself is always the Same. Just one word of caution is needed. Keep a tight rein on the imagination when searching the law in this way. The dreamy mind can produce apparent parallels which, though piously intended, are nothing but fancy running wild!
Where the practical weight of that lands is unmistakable:
Christianity is a living reality. It is divine life coming out in all the practical details of our daily history. It is not confined to the benches of a meeting room. It must come out in the factory, in the warehouse, in the shop, in the office, in the daily occupation, whatever that may be. How terrible to think of a man singing and praying on the Lord's day, and on Monday morning watering down his bread and selling it as genuine!
- Full weight. One pound must be exactly one pound; the law bans the second, convenient weight in the bag.
- Full deceit. A false balance is not a slip. It is planned fraud dressed up as integrity, and it hardens the conscience of the one who profits by it.
- Full sight. The smallest details of daily trade fall under God's eye, so honesty in the shop is not a lesser matter than worship.
- Full mirror. We carry the same false weights inside us. Respectable opinion and self-righteousness judge people by a standard the sanctuary rejects.
- Full days. Exact dealing was tied to long life in the land; dishonest dealing made a man an abomination — and God, as one writer puts it, "takes full account."
For every one that doeth such things, every one that doeth unrighteousness, is an abomination to Jehovah thy God.
This verse closes a law about honest weights and measures with God's own verdict on the trader who cheats. Shop scales look like a small matter, so why does God attach such a strong word to them?
The fraud is simple. The trader buys with a heavy weight and sells with a light one, so he wins on both sides. One commentator links honest weights to the long life promised in the previous verse, and then to God's verdict.
God forbids keeping two different weights — one large, one small, one for selling and one for buying — so that the user can cheat the other party (v.14). We should also be careful not to judge one case by one measure and another case by a different measure. Weights and measures must be perfect and just. One pound must be exactly one pound, and one yard exactly one yard. Strict honesty in such things would lengthen the days of an Israelite in the land (v.15). More than this, God calls those who break such rules of honesty "an abomination to the LORD your God." God takes full account.
A tampered weight is not a moment of weakness. It is a decision made in advance, and it keeps on cheating every customer who comes through the door.
Unfair scales and weights make the wrong far greater, because it is not a passing fault but a deliberate one. The same is true when the measures for solids and liquids are falsified… The smallest things of daily life fall under His eye.
The same writer draws out what dishonest trading does to a person's claim to know God — and names the sin underneath it.
God's saving grace teaches us to live righteously in this present age. But that is far from all He looks for in a believer. He asks for self-control and godliness too. And honesty in our dealings with people is essential; without it, any claim to godliness falls apart. It exposes a greedy man, whom the Holy Spirit calls an idolater (Eph. 5:5), a man with no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Modern weights and measures are hidden inside products and invoices rather than in a bag of stones, and the usual excuse is that the whole industry works this way.
A man who puts cardboard into shoes and sells them as leather is unworthy of the name Christian. He is not even an honest man. Someone may tell us, "It is the custom of the trade." But how does that change anything for a person who wants to walk in the fear of God and keep a clear conscience? It may be the custom of the trade to put inferior yarn into cloth and to put water in the milk. But can a Christian or even an honest man do such things? Certainly not. The Word of God must govern a Christian's conscience, not the custom of the trade. Lose sight of this, and practical Christianity in business is finished.
The verse condemns everyone who acts dishonestly, not only the shopkeeper. One writer applies it to the way we weigh people and their sins, using measures we never notice we are carrying.
We are not always skilled at handling the scales, the weights and measures of the sanctuary… Our moral sense, our natural conscience, self-righteousness, the laws of society and the opinions of people all supply us with false weights and measures. We carry them with us more than we realise. But they are an abomination. Deut. 25:16. In our thinking, the way of the prostitute and the tax collector is worse than the easy, respectable path of the world. If we had the scales of the sanctuary, we would weigh things differently. "What is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God."
- One measure. A pound must be a pound and a yard a yard. Two weights in one bag — a big one to buy with, a small one to sell with — is exactly what God forbids.
- His eye. God watches the small dealings of daily life. A rigged scale is worse than a slip, because it is planned.
- His verdict. He calls the cheat an abomination. Dishonest dealing ruins any claim to godliness and exposes the greed beneath it.
- His standard. The Word of God sets a believer's conscience, not the custom of the trade. Lose that, and practical Christianity in business is finished.
- His balances. We carry the same false measures inside us, in how we rank other people's sins. In God's scales, respectable sin weighs heavier than we think.