Just balances, just weights
Which were for such sort of things as were bought and sold by
weight, and these were to be according to the custom and usage
which universally obtained among them, or were fixed and settled
by them; they were to be neither lighter nor heavier; they were
not to have one sort to buy with, and another to sell with, which
was not just, and was an abomination to the Lord, ( Proverbs
11:1 ) ; for "weights", it is in the original text "stones",
for those were formerly used in weighing, and were with us: hence
it is still in use to say, so much by the stone. And according to
Maimonides {w}, the Jews were not to make their weights neither
of iron, nor of lead, nor of the rest of metals, lest they should
rust and become light, but of polished rock, and the like;
a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have;
the first of these was the measure of things dry, as corn, and
the like, the latter of things liquid, as oil and wine; the one
held three seahs or pecks, or ten omers, ( Exodus 16:36
) ; or, according to a nicer calculation, the ephah held seven
gallons, two quarts, and half a pint; and the other, according to
some, held three quarts; but, as more exactly calculated, it held
a wine gallon, and a little more than a quart, (See Gill on
Exodus
30:24). Some Jewish writers F24 refer this to words,
promises, and compacts, expressed by yea and nay, which they were
to abide by; that their yea should be yea, and their nay, nay, (
Matthew
5:37 ) ( 2
Corinthians 1:17 ) ( James 5:12 ) ; that
their affirmation should be just, and so their negation: I
[am] the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of
Egypt;
and therefore were under great obligations to observe his
commands, as follows.