Deuteronomy 25:14
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Deuteronomy 25:13–14
You shall not have two differing weights … one large and one small (Hebrew you must not have stone and stone, large and small, … ephah and ephah, large and small): Merchants should not use two sets of weights and measures to cheat customers. They should not use a heavier weight when buying goods to pay less or a lighter one when selling to earn more.
Section overviews (2)
Deuteronomy 12:1–26.15
After Moses explained the principles of the covenant, he explained how to apply them in daily life (5:1–11:32). This section expands on the Ten Commandments and addresses issues that happen in complex human relationships.
Deuteronomy 5:1–26.19
This section contains the main part of the covenant document. It explains the stipulations, or required commands. These commands show how Israel was to live as God’s covenant people.
The first part (5:1–11:32) presents the major stipulations. These focus especially on the first two commandments (5:7–10). These commandments teach Israel to worship the Lord alone and to avoid idols.
The rest of the section contains more specific instructions. These minor stipulations explain in detail how the major commandments should guide daily life.
25:13-16
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 Pro 16:11; Pro 20:10).
25:13-19
Here is, I. A law against deceitful weights and measures: they must not only not use them, but they must not have them, not have them in the bag, not have them in the house (Deu 25:13, Deu 25:14); for, if they had them, they would be strongly tempted to use them. They must not have a great weight and measure to buy by and a small one to sell by, for that was to cheat both ways, when either was bad enough; as we read of those that made the ephah small, in which they measured the corn they sold, and the shekel great, by which they weighed the money they received for it, Amo 8:5. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, v. 15. That which is the rule of justice must itself be just; if that be otherwise, it is a constant cheat. This had been taken care of before, Lev 19:35, Lev 19:36. This law is enforced with two very good reasons: - 1. That justice and equity will bring down upon us the blessing of God. The way to have our days lengthened, and to prosper, is to be just and fair in all our dealings Honesty is the best policy. 2. That fraud and injustice will expose us to the curse of God, Deu 25:16. Not only unrighteousness itself, but all that do unrighteously, are an abomination to the Lord. And miserable is that man who is abhorred by his Maker. How hateful, particularly, all the arts of deceit are to God, Solomon several times observes, Pro 11:1; Pro 20:10, Pro 20:23; and the apostle tells us that the Lord is the avenger of all such as overreach and defraud in any matter, Th1 4:6.
II. A law for the rooting out of Amalek. Here is a just weight and a just measure, that, as Amalek had measured to Israel, so it should be measure to Amalek again.
1. The mischief Amalek did to Israel must be here remembered, Deu 25:17, Deu 25:18. When it was first done it was ordered to be recorded (Exo 17:14-16), and here the remembrance of it is ordered to be preserved, not in personal revenge (for that generation which suffered by the Amalekites was gone, so that those who now lived, and their posterity, could not have any personal resentment of the injury), but in a zeal for the glory of God (which was insulted by the Amalekites), that throne of the Lord against which the hand of Amalek was stretched out. The carriage of the Amalekites towards Israel is here represented, (1.) As very base and disingenuous. They had no occasion at all to quarrel with Israel, nor did they give them any notice, by a manifesto or declaration of war; but took them at an advantage, when they had just come out of the house of bondage, and, for aught that appeared to them, were only going to sacrifice to God in the wilderness. (2.) As very barbarous and cruel; for they smote those that were more feeble, whom they should have succoured. The greatest cowards are commonly the most cruel; while those that have the courage of a man will have the compassion of a man. (3.) As very impious and profane: they feared not God. If they had had any reverence for the majesty of the God of Israel, which they saw a token of in the cloud, or any dread of his wrath, which they lately heard of the power of over Pharaoh, they durst not have made this assault upon Israel. Well, here was the ground of the quarrel: and it shows how God takes what is done against his people as done against himself, and that he will particularly reckon with those that discourage and hinder young beginners in religion, that (as Satan's agents) set upon the weak and feeble, either to divert them or to disquiet them, and offend his little ones.
2. This mischief must in due time be revenged, Deu 25:19. When their wars were finished, by which they were to settle their kingdom and enlarge their coast, then they must make war upon Amalek (Deu 25:19), not merely to chase them, but to consume them, to blot out the remembrance of Amalek. It was an instance of God's patience that he deferred the vengeance so long, which should have led the Amalekites to repentance; yet an instance of fearful retribution that the posterity of Amalek, so long after, were destroyed for the mischief done by their ancestors to the Israel of God, that all the world might see, and say, that he who toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye. It was nearly 400 years after this that Saul was ordered to put this sentence in execution (1 Sa. 15), and was rejected of God because he did not do it effectually, but spared some of that devoted nation, in contempt, not only of the particular orders he received from Samuel, but of this general command here given by Moses, which he could not be ignorant of. David afterwards made some destruction of them; and the Simeonites, in Hezekiah's time, smote the rest that remained (Ch1 4:43); for when God judges he will overcome.
25:13-16
Deuteronomy 25:13-16
13. Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.
13. Non erit tibi in sacculo tuo pondus et pondus, majus et minus:
14. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small.
14. Non erit tibi in domo tua modius et modius, major et minor.
15. 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.
15. Pondus perfectum et justum erit tibi, modius perfectus et justus erit tibi, ut proroges dies tuos super terram quam Jehova Deus tuus dat tibi.
16. For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.
16. Quia abominatio Jehovae Dei tui est quicunque facit haec, omnis faciens iniquitatem.
25:14
Thou shall not have in thine house divers, measures,.... Or, "an ephah and an ephah"; which was one sort of measure in use with the Jews, and held above a bushel; and is put for all others, which should be alike, and not
a great and a small; one to buy with, and another to sell by, as before observed; which would be to cheat both seller and buyer in their turns; see Amos 8:5.
25:13-16
The duty of integrity in trade is once more enforced in Deu 25:13-16 (as in Lev 19:35-36). "Stone and stone," i.e., two kinds of stones for weighing (cf. Psa 12:3), viz., large ones for buying and small ones for selling. On the promise in Deu 25:15, see Deu 4:26; Deu 5:16; Deu 25:16, as in Deu 22:5; Deu 18:12, etc. In the concluding words, Deu 25:16, "all that do unrighteously," Moses sums up all breaches of the law.