Proverbs 11

From here on in Proverbs, I am going to pick a few verses in each chapter for us to meditate on. This makes sense in that the verses are often unconnected anyway. However, sometimes a theme can be developed because it is mentioned more than once in Proverbs. Let us try.

11: 1.                  “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord,

                                           But an accurate weight is his delight.

As I have said many times, the Old Testament, both Law and Prophets, constantly challenge society to take proper care of “the widow, the orphan, and the alien.” The mark of a godly society is that it takes care of it’s most marginalized and vulnerable people; not the rich (with tax breaks) and powerful (with privileged treatment at the bank and in court). Jesus also carried this concern along. Notice that Jesus had a number of encounters with widows, and even pointed out the sacrificial giving of the widow in the temple (Luke 21: 1-5). However, because of a misleading chapter break, many fail to connect this with what Jesus had said leading up to him watching the widow give her last two mites. At the end of Chapter 20, in the last verses 46 and 47 Jesus warns the disciples: “Beware of the scribes, … they devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearances say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

How do scribes devour widows’ houses? What does that mean? The scribes in charge of the temple required the Temple tax from everyone, and this widow had paid the tax with her last two mites, leaving nothing for herself. Scribes have jiggered the tax system so that the poorest and most vulnerable pay the most taxes, at least they pay the largest percentage of their income. The rich hire lawyers to reduce their taxes, sometimes down to zero. I don’t have a lawyer or a crooked accountant, so I pay thousands of dollars each year. Merchants also jigger the system to charge more for less product, bankers charge more interest to poor people than to rich people, and rich people even lie about their riches to get better interest rates on their loans. It’s time to give them a break, literally.[1] 

From the Old Testament, the following laws and prophecies critique an economic system that favors those who are already rich and tramples the poor in the dust. This is not an exhaustive list, only a sample, and only on the issue of fair trade. There’s a lot more.

The Law:  

Leviticus 19:36.  You shall have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 

Deuteronomy 25:13.  “You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, large and small.”

Why do you think God makes laws? Does God make laws forbidding what people don’t do anyway? Of course not, that would be silly. Our legislature could pass a law forbidding people from riding pigs to work, but that would surely be political theatre (of which we already have too much) since no one (except Tolkein’s dwarfs) rides pigs.

So, we have to assume, since God does not do silly things, that this is exactly what unscrupulous merchants were doing. They used balance beams that always read light. They used 5 ounce weights that actually weighed 4 ½ ounces. A merchant might have two weights, one 17 ounces, the other 15 ounces, but both marked ‘1 pound’. Then they could buy goods using the heavier weight, so that the seller was giving up 17 ounces thinking it was a pound. Then they could turn around and sell goods using the lighter weight so that the buyer got 15 ounces but thought they were getting a pound. The more common practice today is to reduce the size of the box, keeping the same shape and color, then reduce the amount of product but still sell it for the same price as before.  

The ways of squeezing the last cent out of poor people are endless. People living from day to day have to buy in small quantities, so charge more per ounce for giving them that ‘privilege’. Poor people are marked as risks for loans, so charge them higher interest rates than a millionaire gets. Imagine having just enough money to buy food in small amounts for today, then borrowing money to do the same tomorrow.

Other Proverbs:

Proverbs 16:11.  “Honest balances and scales are the Lord’s; all the weights in the bag are his work.”

Proverbs 20:10.  “Diverse weights and diverse measures are both alike an abomination to the Lord.”

Proverbs 20:23.  “Differing weights are an abomination to the Lord, and false scales are not good.”

I repeat, if merchants weren’t doing it, God would not have to make a rule against the practice. Calling weights ‘diverse’ or ‘differing’ refers to using different weights for buying and selling, and different evaluations with different customers.

The Prophets:

Ezekiel 45:10.  “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Enough, O princes of Israel! Put away your violence and oppression, and do what is just and right. Cease your evictions of my people’, says the Lord God. ‘You shall have honest balances, an honest ephah, and an honest bath’.”

Amos 8:5.  “Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, ‘When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah smaller and the shekel heavier and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat’.”

Micah 6:11.  “The voice of the Lord cries to the city (It is sound wisdom to fear your name): “Hear, O tribe and assembly of the city! Can I forget the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is accursed? Can I tolerate wicked scales and a bag of dishonest weights? Your wealthy are full of violence: your inhabitants speak lies, with tongues of deceit in their mouths.”

Well, that’s pretty blunt of God to say these things. Notice that God calls economic mistreatment of the poor “violence” and “oppression.” What mistreatment? Things like redlining houses so Black people[2] could only move into certain neighborhoods, and when they do take a loan to buy a house, the interest rate will be higher than a White person would pay. God calls these practices violence and oppression; what do you call such practices? Business as usual?  

Notice that the poor are not blamed for their own ruin. People do run into rough patches economically, but in the Amos passage, God blames the rich and powerful who “bring to ruin the poor of the land.” The rich merchants anxiously await the end of the Sabbath (back when there were blue laws) so they can open their business again and continue tricking the poor to make a profit. They want to squeeze more money out of people who are already desperate. What advantages do the rich have that are not available to the poor?  

Micah says, “Your wealthy are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, with tongues of deceit in their mouths.” I can’t argue with the prophet of God. It is as true today as it was 2500 years ago.

[1] One of the funniest lines in the movie “Men in Black” is when the alien pretends to be a waiter to get at two other alien customers. The cook asks where the regular waiter is, and the alien says, “I gave him a break.” The camera then pans down to the regular waiter who is stuffed on the bottom shelf, bent in half.

[2] This is not to say that all Black people are poor. By skill and hard work, and dodging the oppression against them, there are rich Black people; but they usually do not show up in our history books. Who was the first Black female millionaire? Madam C. J. Walker. Who was the first Black female billionaire? Sheila Johnson.