What Does Proverbs 20:10 Mean?
Stone and another stone, measure and another measure, both alike are what the LORD recoils from.
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
Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.THE KEY
The Hebrew says “stone and stone” beside “ephah and ephah”: the deception lives in swapping standards, not merely in the goods being measured.
THE MEANING
The verse makes an unequal standard visible as one act, whether it hides in a balance weight or a grain measure. The LORD sees both sides of the exchange together; two ordinary tools can carry one concealed advantage. The judgment names that distortion as detestable now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A difference between measures is a harmless technicality when both are recognized tools.
THE ROOT
אֶבֶן
ʾeven
GROWS FROM
אבן
Stone; here, a stone used as a balance weight.
“Stone and another stone” in this verse is ʾeven. The word is concrete: what English calls “weights” are stones, so the verse exposes tampering at the level of the standard itself. Its spelling also lets אב (ʾav, father) and בן (ben, son) meet through the shared ב; this is a consonant echo, not a claim that the noun derives from those two words.
ALSO GROWS
ʾavanim: Stones; plural of אֶבֶן (ʾeven, stone).
אֲבָנִים
The plural keeps the concrete object in view: this verse compares stone with stone, not merely one abstract unit with another.
ʾavnei: Stones of; construct plural of אֶבֶן (ʾeven, stone).
אַבְנֵי
The construct form keeps the same named material attached to what follows, echoing the verse’s repeated stone before it names the paired measures.
תּוֹעֲבַת
toʿavat
GROWS FROM
תעב
To abhor (taʿav); to regard as detestable.
“what the LORD recoils from” in this verse is toʿavat. The root carries active abhorrence: the unequal standard is not merely inaccurate but detestable. The verse gathers two kinds of measurement under one verdict, so their different forms do not dilute the judgment.
ALSO GROWS
metoʿav: Detested; abhorrent.
מְתֹעָב
This form carries the same root into what is detested, showing the force behind the verse’s judgment.
toʿevot: Abominations; plural of תּוֹעֵבָה (toʿevah, abomination).
תּוֹעֲבוֹת
The plural shares the root’s judgment across multiple detestable acts; here, the unequal weight and measure meet under one verdict.
THE PATTERN
A standard ceases to serve justice when it shifts in secret to give one side an advantage.
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.Scales of deceit are an abomination to the LORD, but a whole stone is his delight.For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.THE THREAD
Scales of deceit are an abomination to the LORD, but a whole stone is his delight.The word translated “abomination” in both proverbs comes from תעב (taʿav, to abhor), carrying the same judgment from mismatched stones and measures to a false balance. The second half sets a just weight against that distortion, making the contrast explicit.
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