These passages talk about the importance of accurate weights and scales in economic transactions, as well as integrity in general. This is the “system of morality” that keeps a free market economy from degenerating into chaos. On the positive side, it makes freedom work because it places a check on exploitation, abuse, and greed. Using his own words, Dr. Ronald Nash essentially says this in his article upholding the free enterprise system: “Capitalism should be thought of as a system of voluntary relationships within a framework of laws which protect peoples’ rights against force, fraud, theft, and violations of contracts.” Then he adds, “‘Thou shalt not steal’ and ‘Thou shalt not lie’ are part of the underlying moral constraints of the system.”
Exodus 20:15-17; 23:1-9; Leviticus 19:15,35-37; 25:14; Deuteronomy 1:17; 16:19-20; 19:14; 25:13-16; Proverbs 11:1; 12:22; 16:11; 18:5; 20:10; 22:28; 23:10; 24:23; 26:18-19; 28:21; Jeremiah 22:3; Ezekiel 45:10; Micah 6:8-12; Titus 2:6-8; 1 Peter 2:12
Each linked Scripture reference will take you to a biblegateway.com page displaying that passage in the New King James translation, the New International Version (with clarifying footnotes), and the New Living Translation.
2015 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
231 “You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. 2 You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.3 You shall not show partiality to a poor man in his dispute.
4 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. 5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it.
6 “You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute. 7 Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked. 8 And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous.
9 “Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.
1935 ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume. 36 You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
37 ‘Therefore you shall observe all My statutes and all My judgments, and perform them: I am the LORD.’ ”
And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor’s hand, you shall not oppress one another.
You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.’
1619 You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. 20 You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
14 “You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
2513 “You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light. 14 You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. 15 You shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD your God is giving you. 16 For all who do such things, all who behave unrighteously, are an abomination to the LORD your God.
Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD,
But a just weight is His delight.
Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD,
But those who deal truthfully are His delight.
Honest weights and scales are the LORD’s;
All the weights in the bag are His work.
It is not good to show partiality to the wicked,
Or to overthrow the righteous in judgment.
Diverse weights and diverse measures,
They are both alike, an abomination to the LORD.
Do not remove the ancient landmark
Which your fathers have set.
Do not remove the ancient landmark,
Nor enter the fields of the fatherless;
These things also belong to the wise:
It is not good to show partiality in judgment.
2618 Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death,
19 Is the man who deceives his neighbor,
And says, “I was only joking!”
To show partiality is not good,
Because for a piece of bread a man will transgress.
Thus says the LORD: “Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.
You shall have honest scales, an honest ephah, and an honest bath.
68 He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
The LORD’s voice cries to the city—
Wisdom shall see Your name:
“Hear the rod!
Who has appointed it?
10 Are there yet the treasures of wickedness
In the house of the wicked,
And the short measure that is an abomination?
11 Shall I count pure those with the wicked scales,
And with the bag of deceitful weights?
12 For her rich men are full of violence,
Her inhabitants have spoken lies,
And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
6 Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, 7 in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, 8 sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.
having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.
This compilation copyright © 2021 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture has been taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.