Context No. 3325 of 4322 · Deuteronomy
Context · Reflection
Deuteronomy 25:13-19: in context
13You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, one heavy and one light. 14You shall not have in your house diverse measures, one large and one small. 15You shall have a perfect and just weight. You shall have a perfect and just measure, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you. 16For all who do such things, all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to the LORD your God. 17Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came out of Egypt, 18how he met you by the way, and struck the rearmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn’t fear God. 19Therefore it shall be, when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky. You shall not forget.
Two commands sit side by side. First, honest weights and measures: you shall not carry two kinds of weights, one heavy and one light, but a full and fair weight, for dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD. And second, remember Amalek, who attacked Israel from behind, cutting down the weak and weary stragglers when they were faint, and did not fear God.
God cares about integrity in the small, hidden transactions of the marketplace, where a rigged scale quietly cheats the poor. And what he holds against Amalek is precisely their cruelty to the vulnerable: they preyed on the exhausted, the ones lagging behind, those least able to defend themselves. Both commands, in their different ways, protect the weak, the honest scale that will not defraud, and the memory of a cruelty that fell on the helpless. What God abhors is the strong taking advantage of the weak, whether by a false balance or a sword in the back of the weary.
Do I deal with unfailing honesty in small and hidden matters, and do I refuse to take advantage of the weak and weary rather than prey on them?
Sources
- Deuteronomy 25:15: "You shall have a perfect and just weight... that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you."
- Deuteronomy 25:18: "How he met you by the way, and struck the rearmost of you, all who were feeble behind you... and he didn't fear God."
- Proverbs 11:1: "A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but accurate weights are his delight."