Deuteronomy 25:13

Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

Deuteronomy 25:13-16. JUST WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

So Leviticus 19:35-36. Among the laws of moral holiness comes the law of just weights and measures.

(16) An abomination unto the Lord.—So in Proverbs 11:1, “a false balance is abomination to the Lord.” (See also Amos 8:4-8.) The protection of the poor is the chief practical end in this; rich men can take care of themselves. Poor men are doubly robbed by short weight and measure, because they cannot protect themselves against it. The injustice tends to perpetuate their poverty.

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 25:13. Divers weights, great and small — The great to buy with, the small for selling. This law taught them to be so far from practising deceit, that they were not even to have the instruments of it by them. Would to God that there was no need to enforce the same law in our days!

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:13-16 Dishonest gain always brings a curse on men's property, families, and souls. Happy those who judge themselves, repent of and forsake their sins, and put away evil things, that they may not be condemned of the Lord.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Honesty in trade, as a duty to our neighbor, is emphatically enforced once more (compare Leviticus 19:35-36). It is noteworthy that John the Baptist puts the like duties in the forefront of his preaching (compare Luke 3:12 ff); and that "the prophets" (compare Ezekiel 45:10-12; Amos 8:5; Micah 6:10-11) and "the Psalms" Proverbs 16:11; Proverbs 20:10, Proverbs 20:23, not less than "the Law," especially insist on them.

Deuteronomy 25:13

Divers weights - i. e. stones of unequal weights, the lighter to sell with, the heavier to buy with. Stones were used by the Jews instead of brass or lead for their weights, as less liable to lose anything through rust or wear.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13-16. Thou shalt not have … divers weights—Weights were anciently made of stone and are frequently used still by Eastern shopkeepers and traders, who take them out of the bag and put them in the balance. The man who is not cheated by the trader and his bag of divers weights must be blessed with more acuteness than most of his fellows [Roberts]. (Compare Pr 16:11; 20:10).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The

great, either to buy with, or openly to make show of; the

small, for their private use in selling.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights,.... Or, "a stone and a stone" (y); it being usual, in those times and countries, to have their weights of stone, as it was formerly with us here; we still say, that such a commodity is worth so much per stone, a stone being of such a weight; now these were not to be different:

a great and a small; great weights, to buy with them, and small weights, to sell with them, as the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it.

(y) "lapis et lapis", Montanus, Vatablus, Piscator.

Geneva Study Bible

Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. divers weights] Lit. stone and stone. Most ancient weights discovered in Palestine are of stone; for specimens see PEFQ, 1892, 114; 1894, 215 ff.

Royal standards were fixed for them as early as David’s time (2 Samuel 14:26). With this and the next v. cp. H, Leviticus 19:35 : Thou shalt do no wrong (‘awel) in judgement or with rule, stone, or measure.

13–16. Against Divers Weights and Measures

Israel shall not use these—greater (for purchases) and smaller (for sales)—for he who does so is an abomination to Jehovah (Deuteronomy 25:13 f., Deuteronomy 25:16). Interpolated (for it breaks the connection between Deuteronomy 25:13 f. and Deuteronomy 25:16) is a positive command to have a single normal set of weights and measures; that thy days may be long, etc.—Sg. address throughout. Parallel in H, Leviticus 19:35 f., also a negative command with a positive added; but a different expression of the religious motive. The laws may be quite independent; for the provocations for them were many in Israel.

Amos 8:5 describes among other commercial sins making the ephah small (for selling) and the shekel great (for weighing the purchasers’ money, etc.) and dealing falsely with false balances; Mi. Deuteronomy 6:10 declares the scant measure loathsome. To the popular piety weights and measures, like the husbandman’s methods (see on Deuteronomy 22:9-11), were of divine institution, they were Jehovah’s and his work (Proverbs 16:11).

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 13-16. - Rectitude and integrity in trade are here anew inculcated (cf. Leviticus 19:35, etc.). Verse 13. - Diverse weights; literally, a stone and a stone - a large one for buying, and a small one for selling (cf. Amos 8:5). Both weights and measures were to be "perfect," i.e. exactly correct, and so just. (On the promise in ver. 15, see Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy 5:16.) Deuteronomy 25:13

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The duty of integrity in trade is once more enforced in Deuteronomy 25:13-16 (as in Leviticus 19:35-36). "Stone and stone," i.e., two kinds of stones for weighing (cf. Psalm 12:3), viz., large ones for buying and small ones for selling. On the promise in Deuteronomy 25:15, see Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy 5:16; Deuteronomy 25:16, as in Deuteronomy 22:5; Deuteronomy 18:12, etc. In the concluding words, Deuteronomy 25:16, "all that do unrighteously," Moses sums up all breaches of the law.