What Does Proverbs 16:11 Mean in the King James?
A just weight and balance are the LORD’s: all the weights of the bag are his work.
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
A scale is already an act of judgment: the LORD claims both the measure and the stones that carry it.
THE MEANING
Every measure of value stands within the LORD’s claim; justice is not separate from the one who gives the standard. Even the weights themselves are called his work, placing the instrument and the judgment it enables within the same moral order. The verse speaks wherever worth or fairness is being weighed now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a standard is morally neutral, and belongs only to whoever holds it, dissolves here: the measure itself belongs to the LORD.
THE ROOT
פֶּלֶס
peles
GROWS FROM
פלס
To level, weigh, or ponder.
The word for a balance shares its root with the act of making level or pondering a path. The instrument and the careful act belong together: a scale gives weight, while the root evokes the work of bringing a way into alignment.
ALSO GROWS
peles: Balance or scale.
פֶּלֶס
This is the instrument named in the verse, where the measure belongs to the LORD.
pallēs: Make level; ponder.
פַּלֵּס
In Proverbs 4:26, the same root describes pondering a path, linking measured judgment with a way made level.
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge or decide.
“just” in this verse is mishpat. The balance is described as a balance of mishpat: judgment, justice, and right decision are built into its description. Fair weighing reaches beyond accuracy to the question of whether each thing receives its proper measure.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge or decide.
שָׁפַט
The verb names the act behind mishpat: weighing a matter involves judgment.
shophet: A judge.
שֹׁפֵט
The judge is the one who applies judgment, making the verse’s scales an image of accountable decisions.
אַבְנֵי
avnei
GROWS FROM
אבן
Stone.
The weights are literally stones. The sound-shape of אֶבֶן (even, stone) gathers אָב (av, father) and בֵּן (ben, son), so even the concrete measures carry the paired image of father and son; stone also evokes what establishes a structure’s alignment.
ALSO GROWS
even: Stone.
אֶבֶן
This is the singular behind avnei, the stones used as weights in the verse.
avnei: Stones of; the construct plural of even.
אַבְנֵי
The verse calls the weights stones, making the standard tangible rather than abstract.
even pinnah: Cornerstone.
אֶבֶן פִּנָּה
A cornerstone helps set a structure’s alignment, echoing how the stones here set a measure.
THE PATTERN
A measure reveals the order that governs it, and the measure applied to others returns in kind.
A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.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.Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.THE THREAD
A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.Both verses place the balance and its weight under the LORD’s claim. Proverbs 16:11 calls them his work; this verse shows the shape that work takes in practice: a false balance is detestable, while a just weight delights him.
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