Hebrew word · H3976

מֹאזֵן

moznei

balance

A pair of scales, a beam balance. The word is always dual ('two-pan') or plural. It is used for weighing silver for payment (Jeremiah 32:10), for weighing hair (Ezekiel 5:1), and in poetry for weighing mountains (Isaiah 40:12) or weighing people (Job 31:6; Psalm 62:9).

Appears 15 times in 15 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

scales, balances

Aramaic equivalent: mo.zen (מֹאזֵנְיָא "scale" H3977)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Proverbs 11:1

Range of meaning

A pair of scales, a beam balance. The word is always dual ('two-pan') or plural. It is used for weighing silver for payment (Jeremiah 32:10), for weighing hair (Ezekiel 5:1), and in poetry for weighing mountains (Isaiah 40:12) or weighing people (Job 31:6; Psalm 62:9).

Against the English

BSB and NIV have 'scales', which is clear. KJV, ESV, NASB and WEB have 'balance', which is accurate but to modern ears can sound like an abstract idea (being balanced, a balance sheet) rather than a physical instrument.

How it drifted

In 1611 'balance' meant the weighing instrument first of all. That sense has faded in everyday English, where the abstract senses now dominate.

Used elsewhere in the period

The exact phrase moznê mirmâ, 'scales of deceit', appears in Hosea 12:7 (Hebrew 12:8) and Amos 8:5, both about merchants exploiting buyers. Leviticus 19:36 commands 'scales of righteousness' (moznê ṣedeq). Archaeologists have found bronze scale pans and beam fragments at Iron Age sites in Israel and Judah.

From the study of Amos 8:5

Range of meaning

Moʾzənayim is a two-pan balance (the Hebrew form is dual, 'a pair'). Mirmāh is deceit, treachery, fraud: the deliberate misleading of someone who trusts you. Together they mean 'scales of deceit', balances made or handled to lie.

Against the English

KJV 'falsifying the balances by deceit' and BSB 'cheat with dishonest scales' both work. YLT's 'use perversely' keeps the picture in ʿiwwēt of bending something straight.

Used elsewhere in the period

The exact phrase appears in Hosea 12:7 (a merchant 'in whose hands are scales of deceit; he loves to oppress') and Proverbs 11:1 ('scales of deceit are an abomination to the LORD'). Compare Micah 6:11 and Leviticus 19:35–36. Beyond Israel: in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, ch. 125, the dead declare 'I have not diminished the grain-measure… I have not falsified the plummet of the balance.' The Instruction of Amenemope (ch. 16) says 'Do not tamper with the scales, nor falsify the weights.' The Babylonian Hymn to Shamash says the merchant with false scales comes to ruin.

From the study of Hosea 12:7

Range of meaning

A pair of scales: a beam with two pans, held by hand or hung from a frame. It is related to the word for 'ear' (ʾōzen), possibly from the pans or handles resembling ears.

Against the English

'Balances' (KJV) or 'scales' (modern versions). Both are accurate. The modern picture of a digital scale misses how easily the old kind could be rigged.

Used elsewhere in the period

Leviticus 19:36 ('just balances, just weights'); Proverbs 11:1 and 20:23 ('deceitful balances are an abomination to the LORD'); Amos 8:5 ('to deal falsely with deceitful balances'); Micah 6:11 ('wicked scales... a bag of deceitful weights'). Archaeologists have found many inscribed stone shekel weights from the 8th–7th centuries BC, and their actual masses vary noticeably.

Where it appears

Leviticus · 1

  1. Leviticus 19:36 מֹ֧אזְנֵי balances of

    You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Job · 2

  1. Job 6:2 בְּֽמֹאזְנַ֥יִם in [the] balances

    “If only my grief could be weighed and placed with my calamity on the scales.

  2. Job 31:6 בְמֹאזְנֵי־ in balances of

    let God weigh me with honest scales, that He may know my integrity.

    Here: "In the scales of." The noun is a dual form, meaning a pair, which pictures the two pans of a hand-held balance. It is the everyday tool of the marketplace.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 62:9 בְּמֹאזְנַ֥יִם in [the] balances

    Lowborn men are but a vapor; the exalted are but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.

    Here: The Hebrew form means 'a pair' (dual): a balance-beam scale with two pans, as used in any market. 'In the scales' means placed on one pan to be weighed.

Proverbs · 3

  1. Proverbs 11:1 מֹאזְנֵ֣י scales of

    Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, but an accurate weight is His delight.

    Here: The Hebrew form is dual, meaning 'a pair', which pictures the two pans of a hand-held beam balance. It is the physical tool of the marketplace, not an abstract 'balance' in life. Here it is linked to the next word: 'scales of...'.

  2. Proverbs 16:11 וּמֹאזְנֵ֣י and scales of

    Honest scales and balances are from the LORD; all the weights in the bag are His concern.

    Here: The common word for a merchant's balance. Its Hebrew form is the 'pair' form, which pictures the two pans hanging from a beam. Together with peles it covers the whole weighing apparatus.

  3. Proverbs 20:23 וּמֹאזְנֵ֖י and balances of

    Unequal weights are detestable to the LORD, and dishonest scales are no good.

    Here: The word has a 'pair' ending, picturing the two pans of a hand-held beam balance. Here it is joined to the next word: 'scales of deceit'.

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 40:12 בְּמֹאזְנָֽיִם׃ with scales

    Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on a scale and the hills with a balance?

    Here: The form is dual ('a pair'), naming the two pans of a hand balance. Hills are weighed like produce. The same word comes back in v. 15, where the nations are 'dust on the scales'.

  2. Isaiah 40:15 מֹאזְנַ֖יִם scales

    Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are considered a speck of dust on the scales; He lifts up the islands like fine dust.

    Here: The Hebrew form means 'a pair', for the two pans of a hand balance. It repeats verse 12, where God 'weighed the mountains in scales'. The same God who weighs mountains finds that the nations barely register on those scales.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 32:10 בְּמֹאזְנָֽיִם׃ on scales

    I signed and sealed the deed, called in witnesses, and weighed out the silver on the scales.

Ezekiel · 2

  1. Ezekiel 5:1 מֹאזְנֵ֥י scales of

    “As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair.

  2. Ezekiel 45:10 מֹֽאזְנֵי־ balances of

    You must use honest scales, a just ephah, and a just bath.

Hosea · 1

  1. Hosea 12:7 מֹאזְנֵ֥י scales of

    A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands.

    Here: The word is grammatically dual (a form for pairs), because the tool had two pans hanging from a beam. Silver and goods were weighed on it, since there were no coins yet.

Amos · 1

  1. Amos 8:5 מֹאזְנֵ֥י balances of

    asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales.

    Here: A two-pan balance (the Hebrew form is dual, 'a pair'), with goods or silver in one pan and weight-stones in the other.

Micah · 1

  1. Micah 6:11 בְּמֹ֣אזְנֵי with balances of

    Can I excuse dishonest scales or bags of false weights?

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.