Proverbs 11 · Verse 1

Proverbs 11:1

A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight.
Proverbs 11:1, King James Version

Proverbs 11:1 in other translations

BSBDishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, but an accurate weight is His delight.
WEBA false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but accurate weights are his delight.
ASVA false balance is an abomination to Jehovah; But a just weight is his delight.
YLTBalances of deceit are an abomination to Jehovah, And a perfect weight is His delight.
DARBYA false balance is an abomination to Jehovah; but a just weight is his delight.
BBEScales of deceit are hated by the Lord, but a true weight is his delight.
WebsterA false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.

What does Proverbs 11:1 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
Pr 11:1-31. 1. (Compare Margin). The Hebrews used stones for weights. just--complete in measure.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Introduction

A parallel of the advantages of the righteous and wise, opposed to the miseries of the wicked and the foolish. True and false riches. Verse 1 A false balance is abomination - This refers to the balance itself deceitfully constructed, so that it is sooner turned at one end than at the other. This is occasioned by one end of the beam being longer than the other. But a just weight - אבן שלמה eben shelemah, the perfect stone probably because weights were first made of stone; see the law, Deu 25:13-16 (note).

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
However men may make light of giving short weight or measure, and however common such crimes may be, they are an abomination to the Lord.

Matthew Henry, 1706 · public domain

Proverbs 11:1 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

מֹאזְנֵ֣יmoz.Neiscales ofH3976
מִ֭רְמָהMir.mahdeceitH4820
תּוֹעֲבַ֣תto.'a.Vat[are] [the] abomination ofH8441
יְהוָ֑הYah.wehYahwehH3068
וְאֶ֖בֶןve.'E.venand a weightH68
שְׁלֵמָ֣הshe.le.MahperfectH8003
רְצוֹנֽוֹ\׃re.tzo.No[is] pleasure hisH7522

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Proverbs 11:1

  • Deuteronomy 25:13-16

    Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.

  • Proverbs 20:23

    Divers weights are an abomination unto the Lord; and a false balance is not good.

  • Proverbs 16:11

    A just weight and balance are the Lord’s: all the weights of the bag are his work.

  • Leviticus 19:35-36

    Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.

  • Proverbs 20:10

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

  • Hosea 12:7

    He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.

  • Amos 8:5-6

    Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?

  • Ezekiel 45:10-12

    Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer. And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.

  • Micah 6:10-11

    Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
16:11; 20:10,23; Le 19:35,36; De 25:13-16; Ho 12:7; Am 8:5,6
Mic 6:10,11
a just weight. Heb. a perfect stone.
16:11; Eze 45:10-12

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Proverbs 11:1

    A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight.

  • Proverbs 11:2

    When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.

Read all of Proverbs 11

Proverbs 11:1 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		EL peso falso abominación es á Jehová: mas la pesa cabal le agrada.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		La fausse balance est en abomination à l’ Éternel, mais le poids juste lui est agréable.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Trügerische Waagschalen sind Jehova ein Greuel, aber volles Gewicht ist sein Wohlgefallen.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Statera dolosa abominatio est apud Dominum, et pondus æquum voluntas ejus.