Balance
review the importance of precision in the christian life using our God as a standard
It must be understood, then, from the beginning, that any attempt to translate ancient measures into modern units can result only in approximations. In Egypt responsibility for weights and measures was the jurisdiction of a high administration official. In 1 Chronicles 23:29 the Levites are given this responsibility. Consistency, integrity, and general precision would be their concern. Even if standardization had been desired, the equipment did not exist to achieve or maintain precision. Any given locality in any given time period might use the same terms, but with slightly different values than other localities and other time periods. The attempt to identify which values any given biblical text had in mind becomes haphazard in that the text rarely offers any identification of measurement terms. The terms were known to the Israelite audience, so no explanation was considered necessary by the author.
9 Common people are only a vapor;
important people, an illusion.
Together on a scale,
they weigh less than a vapor.
10 Place no trust in oppression
or false hope in robbery.
If wealth increases,
don’t set your heart on it.
11 God has spoken once;
I have heard this twice:
strength belongs to God,
12 and faithful love belongs to you, Lord.
For you repay each according to his works.
Psalm 63
Dishonest scales are detestable to the LORD,
but an accurate weight is his delight.
7 A merchant loves to extort
with dishonest scales in his hands.
8 But Ephraim thinks,
“How rich I have become;
I made it all myself.
In all my earnings,
no one can find any iniquity in me
that I can be punished for!”
11 Can I excuse wicked scales
or bags of deceptive weights?
12 For the wealthy of the city are full of violence,
and its residents speak lies;
the tongues in their mouths are deceitful.
13 “As a result, I have begun to strike you severely,,
bringing desolation because of your sins.
14 You will eat but not be satisfied,
for there will be hunger within you.
What you acquire, you cannot save,
and what you do save,
I will give to the sword.
24 Some time later, King Ben-hadad of Aram brought all his military units together and marched up and laid siege to Samaria. 25 So there was a severe famine in Samaria, and they continued the siege against it until a donkey’s head sold for thirty-four ounces of silver, and a cup of dove’s dung sold for two ounces of silver.
Ezek. 4:10: “And thy food which thou shalt eat (shall be) by weight, twenty shekels a day;” and ver. 16: “Moreover, He said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem; and they shall eat bread by weight and with care.”
5 When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and there was a black horse. Its rider held a set of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard something like a voice among the four living creatures say, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, but do not harm the oil and the wine.”