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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Balance
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BALANCE.—The Hebrew balances probably differed but little from those in use in Egypt as described by Wilkinson (Anc. Egyp. [1878], II. 246 f.). The main parts were the beam with its support, and the scales which were hung by cords from the ends of the equal arms of the beam. The ‘pair of scales’ is used in OT by a figure for the balance as a whole; only once is the beam so used (Isa_46:6). The weights were originally of stone and are always so termed. The moral necessity of a just balance and true weights and the iniquity of false ones are frequently emphasized by the prophets, moral teachers, and legislators of Israel; see Amo_8:5, Mic_6:11, Pro_11:1; Pro_16:11 (‘a just balance and scales are the Lord’s’) Pro_20:23, Lev_19:36, Deu_25:13 ff.
A. R. S. Kennedy.