What Does Proverbs 16:11 Mean?
A leveled balance and scales of judgment belong to the LORD, and all the stones of the pouch are his work.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
A just weight and balance are the LORD’s: all the weights of the bag are his work.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.
“leveled balance” in this verse is peles. 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.
“scales of judgment” 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.
“stones of the pouch” in this verse is avnei. 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.
Scales of deceit are an abomination to the LORD, but a whole stone is his delight.But you shall have a whole and aligned stone, and a whole and aligned measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD your God gives you.Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and spilling over, they will give into your lap. For with the same measure you measure out, it will be measured back to you.THE THREAD
Scales of deceit are an abomination to the LORD, but a whole stone 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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