What Does Deuteronomy 25:14 Mean in the King James?

Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small.

Deuteronomy 25:14 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

Hebrew repeats ⁨אֵיפָה⁩ (ephah, a measure): the same named unit becomes two standards when one is made great and the other small.

THE MEANING

The measure in your house can keep one name while taking two sizes. What appears to be one standard changes with the exchange.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Using the same label for both measures makes them fair.

THE ROOT

גְּדוֹלָה

gedolah

GROWS FROM

גדל

gadal

To grow or become great.

Here “great” is the measure made to grow; the paired “small” is the measure reduced. The two size roots expose how the same named ephah can be enlarged or diminished while its identity stays constant.

ALSO GROWS

gadal: To grow or become great.

גָּדַל

It shows “great” as a change in size, not a different kind of measure.

gedullah: Greatness or majesty.

גְּדֻלָּה

This noun carries the same sense of greatness expressed here as a larger measure.

קְטַנָּה

qetannah

GROWS FROM

קטן

qatan

To be small or become little.

“small” in this verse is qetannah. This root can describe both smallness and becoming diminished. Beside the root for “great,” it reveals two opposing adjustments made to what is still called the same measure.

ALSO GROWS

qatan: To become small or be diminished.

קָטַן

It makes the reduction of the measure an action, rather than a separate unit.

qaton: Small or little.

קָטֹן

This adjective shares the verse’s sense of a measure reduced in size.

THE PATTERN

Justice is tested by whether a standard stays consistent across different people and exchanges.

Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.

Proverbs 20:10 · KJVThe verse names unequal standards themselves as corrupt, even when the weights or measures appear ordinary.

Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

Micah 6:10-11 · KJVThe scant measure in the house exposes how private gain can hide inside a familiar unit.

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

Matthew 7:2 · KJVThe measure one applies returns as the standard by which one is measured.

THE THREAD

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.

Deuteronomy 25:15 · KJV

Verse 15 answers the repeated measure with an ephah called ⁨שְׁלֵמָה⁩ (shelemah, whole or complete) and just. ⁨שְׁלֵמָה⁩ (shelemah, whole or complete) comes from ⁨שׁלם⁩ (sh-l-m, to be whole), the root also seen in ⁨שָׁלוֹם⁩ (shalom, wholeness): the just standard is pictured as undivided.

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