the Week of Proper 25 / Ordinary 30
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Bible Encyclopedias
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Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or ( אֶבֶן eben, Deuteronomy 22:24; Deuteronomy 15:15; 2 Samuel 14:26; Proverbs 11:1; Proverbs 16:11; Proverbs 10:10; Micah 6:11; a stone, as elsewhere rendered; usually מַשְׁקָל, mishkal [once מַשׁפל, manishkol, Ezekiel 4:11], from שָׁקִל, to weigh; פֶּלֶס, peles, Proverbs 16:11; "scales," Isaiah 40:12, a balance; ὄγκος, Hebrews 12:1, a mass; βάρος, 2 Corinthians 4:17, elsewhere burden"). It is evident from one of these names (eben) that stones were used in the most ancient times among the Hebrews for weights, as they were also among many other nations; and from another (mishkal), that of their moneys weights and terms, the shekel was that in most common use, and the standard by which others were regulated. In later times weights were made of lead (Zechariah 5:6). These weights were carried in a bag (Deuteronomy 25:13; Proverbs 16:11) suspended from the girdle (Chardin, Voy. 3, 422), and were very early made the vehicles of fraud. The habit of carrying two sets of weights is denounced in Deuteronomy 25:13 and Proverbs 20:10, and the necessity of observing strict honesty in the matter is insisted upon in several precepts of the law (Leviticus 19:36; Deuteronomy 25:13). But the custom lived on, and remained in full force to the days of Micah (Micah 6:11), and even to those of Zechariah, Who appears (ch. 5) to pronounce a judgment against fraud of a similar kind. (See BAG).
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