Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, August 20th, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
Attention!
For 10¢ a day you can enjoy StudyLight.org ads
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

Myles Coverdale Bible

Micah 6:11

Or shulde I iustfie the false balaunces and the bagge of disceatfull weightes,

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Balances;   Character;   Dishonesty;   Measure;   Purity;   Weights;   Thompson Chain Reference - Business Life;   Dishonesty;   Just Weights;   Measures;   Social Duties;   Vices;   Virtues;   Weights;   The Topic Concordance - Deception;   Lying/lies;   Satisfaction;   Sin;   Violence;   Wealth;   Wickedness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Character of the Wicked;   Weights;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Money;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Coins;   Micah, book of;   Steal;   Weights;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Testimony;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Bag;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Balances;   Economic Life;   Micah, Book of;   Weights and Measures;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Balance;   Lie, Lying;   Micah, Book of;   Prophecy, Prophets;   Righteousness;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Trade and Commerce;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Balances;   Purse,;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Balance;   Proverbs, Book of;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Bag;   Balance;  

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?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
'Shall I be pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful weights?'
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?

Contextual Overview

9 that thou mayest be called a cite of the LORDE, & that thy name maye be rightuousnesse. Heare (o ye trybes) who wolde els geue you soch warnynge? 10 Shulde I not be displeased, for the vnrightuous good in the houses of the wicked, and because the measure is minished? 11 Or shulde I iustfie the false balaunces and the bagge of disceatfull weightes, 12 amonge those that be full off riches vnrightuously gotten: where the citesyns deale with falsede, speake lyes, and haue disceatfull tunges in their mouthes? 13 Therfore I will take in honde to punysh the, and to make the desolate, because of thy synnes. 14 Thou shalt eate, & not haue ynough: yee thou shalt bringe thy self downe. Thou shalt fle, but not escape: ad those yt thou woldest saue, wil I delyuer to the swerde. 15 Thou shalt sowe, but not reape: thou shalt presse out olyues, but oyle shalt thou not haue, to anoynte thy self withall: thou shalt treade out swete must, but shalt drynke no wyne. 16 Ye kepe the ordinaunces of Amri, & all the customes of the house of Achab: ye folowe their pleasures, therfore wil I make the waist, & cause yi inhabiters to be abhorred, O my people: & thus shalt thou beare thine owne shame.

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
So whan men beganne to multiplie vpon the earth, and had begot them doughters,
Genesis 6:2
the children of God sawe the doughters of men, that they were fayre, and toke vnto the wyues soch as they liked.
Genesis 7:1
And ye LORDE sayde vnto Noe: Go in to the Arcke thou & thy whole house: for the haue I sene righteous before me at this tyme.
Genesis 10:9
and was a mightie hunter in the sight of the LORDE. Therof commeth the prouerbe: This is a mightie hunter before the LORDE like as Nemrod.
Genesis 13:13
But ye men of Sodome were wicked, and synned exceadingly agaynst the LORDE.
2 Chronicles 34:27
Because thine hert is moued, and because thou hast humbled thy selfe in the sighte of God, whan thou herdest his wordes agaynst this place and the inhabiters therof, and hast submytted thy selfe before me, and rent thy clothes, and wepte before me, therfore haue I herde the, sayeth ye LORDE.
Psalms 11:5
The LORDE seith both the rightuous and vngodly, but who so deliteth in wickednes, him his soule abhorreth.
Psalms 55:9
This goeth daye and night aboute the walles, myschefe and vyce are in the myddest of it.
Psalms 140:11
A man full of wordes shal not prospere vpon earth: a malicious & wicked person shal be hunted awaye and destroyed.
Isaiah 60:18
Violence and robbery shal neuer be herde of in thy londe, nether harme and destruction with in thy borders. Thy walles shalbe called health, & thy gates the prayse of God

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?


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile