A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is his delight.
This verse puts God's holiness into the marketplace — onto a set of scales. It names two things at once: what He finds detestable, and what gives Him pleasure.
The trick behind the crooked scale
A crooked scale is not a slip. It is planned, and the law had already forbidden it.
Leslie M. GrantHaving differing weights is forbidden. One weight is large, the other small. One is used for selling, the other for buying, so that the user can cheat the other party. In spiritual things too, we should be careful. We must not use one measure of judgment for one case and a different measure for another. Weights and measures must be perfect and just. One pound is to be precisely one pound, one yard precisely one yard.
What makes it worse than plain theft is the mask it wears.
William Kelly"A false balance" is much more than an act of dishonesty. It pretends to be honest, and behind that pretence lies a deliberate purpose to cheat. So it is an abomination to Him whose eyes see and whose 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 hardened conscience.
Weight of the word "abomination"
This is not a word saved for the worst sins alone.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe word 'abomination' is used in the Old Testament in reference to any iniquity as viewed by a holy God. It also marks out what was unfit to bring into the service of God. One example is an animal with any blemish brought as a sacrifice... The service of God itself became an abomination to Him when it sank into a mere outward form, or when it was joined with iniquity. But idolatry was the special thing that God declared to be an abomination to Him.
God's own scales
The verse also names what pleases God. He keeps a balance of His own, and it never misreads the smallest gift.
The Bible TreasuryHe sees a poor widow, and she puts in two small copper coins. In Proverbs it says, "A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is His delight." He weighs everything in the balances of the sanctuary. As He does so He says, "This poor widow has put in more than all of them."
Honesty as the test of faith
Faith that cannot survive a business deal is not worth announcing.
William KellyThe saving grace of God instructs us to live righteously in the present age. It is far from all that He looks for in a person of faith. He claims sobriety, and godliness also. But honesty in our dealings with people is essential. Where it is missing, any claim to piety is worthless. Dishonesty betrays a covetous man, whom the Holy Spirit brands as an idolater (Ephesians 5:5), with no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
When everyone else does it
One common defence of the crooked scale is that the whole trade runs that way. C. H. Mackintosh answers it.
C. H. MackintoshA 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 say, "It is the custom of the trade." But how does that change things for a person who wants to walk in the fear of God and keep a good conscience?... The Word of God, not the custom of the trade, must rule a Christian's conscience. If we lose sight of this, practical Christianity in business life is finished.
The same writer will not leave faith inside a meeting room:
C. H. MackintoshIt 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 Sunday! Then on Monday morning he mixes cheap filler into his bread and sells it as genuine.
Summary
- Two weights. The cheat keeps one weight for buying and another for selling. Every exchange leans his way. The same fault shows when we judge one person by one standard and another by a softer one.
- Two masks. A scale advertises fairness. So a crooked one is a lie as well as a theft, and it hardens the conscience of the man who profits by it.
- Two verdicts. "Abomination" covers any wrongdoing seen against God's holiness. Against it stands His delight: the small honest weight pleases Him.
- One perfect balance. God weighs in the balances of the sanctuary, where a widow's two small coins outweigh the gifts of the rich.
- One life. Honesty is essential, so the custom of the trade cannot rule the conscience. Sunday singing and Monday cheating cancel each other out.