Micah 6:11

JPS Old Testament

'Shall I be pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful weights?'

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Can I excuse wicked scalesor bags of deceptive weights?

Hebrew Names Version
Shall I be pure with dishonest scales, And with a bag of deceitful weights?

King James Version (1611)
Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitfull weights?

King James Version
Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

English Standard Version
Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights?

New American Standard Bible
"Can I justify dishonest balances, And a bag of fraudulent weights?

New Century Version
Can I forgive people who cheat others with wrong weights and scales?

Amplified Bible
"Can I [be guiltless and] justify deceptive scales And a bag of dishonest weights?

Geneva Bible (1587)
Shall I iustifie the wicked balances, and the bag of deceitfull weightes?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Can I justify wicked scales And a bag of deceptive weights?

Legacy Standard Bible
Can I purify wicked scalesAnd a bag of deceptive weights?

Berean Standard Bible
Can I excuse dishonest scales or bags of false weights?

Contemporary English Version
But I, the Lord , will punish you for cheating with weights and with measures.

Complete Jewish Bible
Should I declare innocent wicked scales and a bag of fraudulent weights?

Darby Translation
Shall I be pure with the unjust balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

Easy-to-Read Version
Some people carry special weights that they use to cheat people when they weigh their goods. Should I pardon them?

George Lamsa Translation
How can they justify themselves with the wicked scales and with the bag of deceitful weights?

Good News Translation
How can I forgive those who use false scales and weights?

Lexham English Bible
Shall I regard as pure the one with scales of wickedness, and with a bag of deceitful weights?

Literal Translation
Shall I declare wicked balances to be pure, or a bag of stones of fraud?

American Standard Version
Shall I be pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful weights?

Bible in Basic English
Is it possible for me to let wrong scales and the bag of false weights go without punishment?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Should I iustifie the false balaunces, and the bagge of deceitfull weightes?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Shall the wicked be justified by the balanced, or deceitful weights in the bag,

English Revised Version
Shall I be pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful weights?

World English Bible
Shall I be pure with dishonest scales, And with a bag of deceitful weights?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whether Y schal iustifie the wickid balaunce, and the gileful weiytis of litil sak,

Update Bible Version
Shall I be pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful weights?

Webster's Bible Translation
Shall I count [them] pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

New English Translation
I do not condone the use of rigged scales, or a bag of deceptive weights.

New King James Version
Shall I count pure those with the wicked scales, And with the bag of deceitful weights?

New Living Translation
How can I tolerate your merchants who use dishonest scales and weights?

New Life Bible
Can I make a man not guilty who lies and has false weights in his bag?

New Revised Standard
Can I tolerate wicked scales and a bag of dishonest weights?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Shall I be pure with lawless balances? or with bag of deceitful weights?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Shall I justify wicked balances, and the deceitful weights of the bag?

Revised Standard Version
Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights?

Young's Literal Translation
Do I reckon [it] pure with balances of wickedness? And with a bag of deceitful stones?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Or shulde I iustfie the false balaunces and the bagge of disceatfull weightes,

Contextual Overview

⁹ Hark! the LORD crieth unto the city--and it is wisdom to have regard for Thy name--hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it. ¹⁰ Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? ¹¹ 'Shall I be pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful weights?' ¹² For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. ¹³ Therefore I also do smite thee with a grievous wound; I do make thee desolate because of thy sins. ¹⁴ Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy sickness shall be in thine inward parts; and thou shalt conceive, but shalt not bring forth; and whomsoever thou bringest forth will I give up to the sword. ¹⁵ Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but shalt not anoint thee with oil; and the vintage, but shalt not drink wine. ¹⁶ For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I may make thee an astonishment, and the inhabitants thereof a hissing; and ye shall bear the reproach of My people.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

count them pure: or, be pure

the wicked: Hosea 12:7

the bag: Proverbs 16:11

Reciprocal: Exodus 20:15 - General Exodus 34:7 - that will by no means clear the guilty Deuteronomy 25:13 - in thy bag Job 31:6 - Let me be weighed in an even balance Proverbs 11:1 - A false balance is Proverbs 20:10 - both Jeremiah 5:27 - so are Ezekiel 22:13 - thy dishonest Ezekiel 45:10 - General Amos 8:5 - making James 2:6 - Do

Cross-References

Genesis 6:1
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

Genesis 6:2
that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives, whomsoever they chose.

Genesis 7:1
And the LORD said unto Noah: 'Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation.

Genesis 10:9
He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; wherefore it is said: 'Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.'

Genesis 13:13
Now the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against the LORD exceedingly.

2 Chronicles 34:27
because thy heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest His words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and hast humbled thyself before Me, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD.

Psalms 11:5
The LORD trieth the righteous; but the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth.

Psalms 55:9
I would haste me to a shelter from the stormy wind and tempest.'

Psalms 140:11
Let burning coals fall upon them; let them be cast into the fire, into deep pits, that they rise not up again.

Isaiah 60:18
Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, desolation nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Shall I count [them] pure with the wicked balances,.... These are the words either of the prophet, or rather of God, signifying that he could not, and would not, allow, countenance, and approve of persons that used false scales or balances; or justify and reckon them just, as they would be thought to be, but condemn them, and pronounce them very wicked men, and deserving of punishment here and hereafter:

and with the bag of deceitful weights? or "stones" o; which were used in weighing goods, and which were deceitful, when a heavier was used in buying, and a lighter in selling. So the Targum,

"and with the bag, in which are weights greater and lesser;''

condemned in Deuteronomy 25:13.

o אבני מרמה "lapidum doli", Piscator; "lapidum fraudis", Montanus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Shall I count them pure? - Rather, (as the English margin) “Shall I be pure?” The prophet takes for the time their person and bids them judge themselves in him. If it would defile me, how are ye, with all your other sins, not defiled? All these things were expressly forbidden in the law. “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in mete-yard, in weight or in measure. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just him, shall ye have” Leviticus 19:35-36; and, “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. For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteousness are an abomination unto the Lord thy God” (Deuteronomy 25:13, Deuteronomy 25:15-16, add Proverbs 11:1; Proverbs 16:11; Proverbs 20:10). Yet are not these things common even now?