Verse (Click for Chapter) New International Version The merchant uses dishonest scales and loves to defraud. New Living Translation But no, the people are like crafty merchants selling from dishonest scales— they love to cheat. English Standard Version A merchant, in whose hands are false balances, he loves to oppress. Berean Standard Bible A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands. King James Bible He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. New King James Version “A cunning Canaanite! Deceitful scales are in his hand; He loves to oppress. New American Standard Bible A merchant, in whose hands are fraudulent balances, Loves to exploit. NASB 1995 A merchant, in whose hands are false balances, He loves to oppress. NASB 1977 A merchant, in whose hands are false balances, He loves to oppress. Legacy Standard Bible A merchant, in whose hands are deceptive balances, He loves to oppress. Amplified Bible A merchant, in whose hand are false and fraudulent balances; He loves to oppress and exploit. Christian Standard Bible A merchant loves to extort with dishonest scales in his hands. Holman Christian Standard Bible A merchant loves to extort with dishonest scales in his hands. American Standard Version He is a trafficker, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. Contemporary English Version Israel, you enjoy cheating and taking advantage of others. English Revised Version He is a trafficker, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. GOD'S WORD® Translation [The LORD says,] "The merchants use dishonest scales. They love to cheat people. Good News Translation The LORD says, "The people of Israel are as dishonest as the Canaanites; they love to cheat their customers with false scales. International Standard Version "Now as for the merchant, deceitful balances remain in his hand, and he loves to defraud. Majority Standard Bible A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands. NET Bible The businessmen love to cheat; they use dishonest scales. New Heart English Bible A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand. He loves to defraud. Webster's Bible Translation He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. World English Bible A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand. He loves to defraud. Literal Translations Literal Standard VersionCanaan! In his hand [are] balances of deceit! He has loved to oppress. Young's Literal Translation Canaan! in his hand are balances of deceit! To oppress he hath loved. Smith's Literal Translation Canaan in his hand, the balances of deceit: he loved to oppress. Catholic Translations Douay-Rheims BibleHe is like Chanaan, there is a deceitful balance in his hand, he hath loved oppression. Catholic Public Domain Version Canaan, in his hand is a deceitful balance, he has chosen false accusations. New American Bible A merchant who holds a false balance, he loves to extort! New Revised Standard Version A trader, in whose hands are false balances, he loves to oppress. Translations from Aramaic Lamsa BibleThe balances of deceit are in the hand of Canaan, he loves to oppress. Peshitta Holy Bible Translated A scale of deceit is in the hand of Canaan; he loves to oppress OT Translations JPS Tanakh 1917As for the trafficker, the balances of deceit are in his hand. He loveth to oppress. Brenton Septuagint Translation As for Chanaan, in his hand is a balance of unrighteousness: he has loved to tyrannize. Additional Translations ... Audio Bible Context A Reproof of Ephraim, Judah, Jacob…6But you must return to your God, maintaining love and justice, and always waiting on your God. 7A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands. 8And Ephraim boasts: “How rich I have become! I have found wealth for myself. In all my labors, they can find in me no iniquity that is sinful.”… Cross References Micah 6:10-12 Can I forget any longer, O house of the wicked, the treasures of wickedness and the short ephah, which is accursed? / Can I excuse dishonest scales or bags of false weights? / For the wealthy of the city are full of violence, and its residents speak lies; their tongues are deceitful in their mouths. Amos 8:5-6 asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales. / Let us buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the chaff with the wheat!” Proverbs 11:1 Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, but an accurate weight is His delight. Proverbs 20:23 Unequal weights are detestable to the LORD, and dishonest scales are no good. Jeremiah 5:26-28 For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men. / Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich. / They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy. Ezekiel 28:5 By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth, but your heart has grown proud because of it. Isaiah 1:23 Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them. Zechariah 5:3-4 Then he told me, “This is the curse that is going out over the face of all the land, for according to one side of the scroll, every thief will be removed; and according to the other side, every perjurer will be removed. / I will send it out, declares the LORD of Hosts, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by My name. It will remain inside his house and destroy it, down to its timbers and stones.” Leviticus 19:35-36 You must not use dishonest measures of length, weight, or volume. / You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Deuteronomy 25:13-16 You shall not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light. / You shall not have two differing measures in your house, one large and one small. / You must maintain accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. ... Matthew 23:25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Luke 16:14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of this and were scoffing at Jesus. James 5:1-6 Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you. / Your riches have rotted and moths have eaten your clothes. / Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and consume your flesh like fire. You have hoarded treasure in the last days. ... 1 Timothy 6:9-10 Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. / For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. 1 Corinthians 6:10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Treasury of Scripture He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loves to oppress. a merchant. Ezekiel 16:3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite. Zechariah 14:21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts. John 2:16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise. the balances. Leviticus 19:35,36 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure… Proverbs 11:1 A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight. Proverbs 16:11 A just weight and balance are the LORD'S: all the weights of the bag are his work. he loveth. Isaiah 3:5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable. Ezekiel 22:29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. Amos 2:7 That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name: oppress. 1 Samuel 12:3 Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you. Jump to Previous Balances Canaan Deceit Defraud Dishonest Hand Hands Loves Merchant Oppress Pleasure Scales Trader Trafficker Twisted UsesJump to Next Balances Canaan Deceit Defraud Dishonest Hand Hands Loves Merchant Oppress Pleasure Scales Trader Trafficker Twisted UsesHosea 12 1. A reproof of Ephraim, Judah, and Jacob.3. By former favors he exhorts to repentance. 7. Ephraim's sins provoke God. A merchant The Hebrew word used here is "כְּנַעֲנִי" (Canaanite), which is often translated as "merchant" due to the Canaanites' reputation for trade and commerce. Historically, the Canaanites were known for their business acumen, and this term became synonymous with traders. In the context of Hosea, the use of "merchant" symbolizes Israel's moral and spiritual decline, as they have adopted the deceitful practices of the surrounding nations, prioritizing material gain over righteousness. loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands Moreover, the prophet hints that Ephraim had imbibed Ph?nicia's love of gain and habits of unscrupulous trade. The literature of this period contains frequent references to these tendencies in Israel (Amos 2:6; Amos 8:5; Micah 6:10). Verses 7-14 contain a fresh description of Israel's apostasy. To this the prophet is led by the preceding train of thought. When he called to mind the earnestness of the patriarch to obtain the blessing, the sincerity of his repentance, and the evidences of conversion, consisting in mercy and judgment and constant waiting on God, he looks around on Israel, and finding those virtues conspicuous by their absence., he repeats the story of their degeneracy. Verse 7. - He is a merchant (margin, Canaan), the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. This verse is more exactly rendered, Canaan is he, in his hand are the balances of deceit: he loveth to oppress. How the sons have degenerated from the sire! No longer do we see Jacob wrestling in prayer with the angel of the covenant, and knighted in the field with the name of Israel, or "prince with God;" but a fraudulent merchant Kenaan, seeking to aggrandize himself by cheating and oppression. His conduct is the opposite of what God requires; instead of the mercy and judgment and trust in God enjoined in the preceding verse, we have the Canaanitish (Phoenician) trader, with his false scales in his hand and the love of oppression in his heart. The word Kenaan sometimes denotes Canaan, the son of Ham, and ancestor of the Canaanitish nation; sometimes the land of Canaan, or lowlands (from כָּנַע, bow the knee, γονυ γνυ γνυπετεῖν, genu, knee; then "to be low" or "depressed") as opposed to אֲרָם, or" highlands" (from רוּם, to be high); sometimes Phoenicia, the northern part of Canaan; also, from the Canaanites or Phoenicians having been famous as merchants, a man of Canaan, or any merchant, so Job 40:30 and Proverbs 31:24, just as Kasdi Chaldaean is applied to an astrologer. At the time of Hosea, the Phoenicians were the great merchants who had the commerce of the world in their hand. Canaan is thus a figurative designation of Ephraim in their degenerate condition as indicated by the false balances and love of oppression. The verse is well explained by Theodoret: "And thou, Ephraim, imitating(1) the wickedness of Canaan, hast an unjust balance of mind: thou despisest justice, thou greedily desirest unjust power, thou art high-minded in rich, S, and dost arrogate to thyself very much in prescribing and determining the conditions thereof." Rashi more briefly remarks, "Ye depend upon your wealth because ye are merchants and defraud; and of your riches ye say, 'Yet I have become rich, and shall not serve the Holy One;'" while Kimchi marks the contrast between Israel as he ought to be and Israel as he actually is, thus: "But thou art not so (i.e. practicing love and righteousness), but thou art like the Canaanite, i.e. as (2) the merchant, in whose hand is the deceitful balance." The character of the Phoenician trader is thus given in the 'Odyssey' - "A false Phoenician of insidious mind, Vers'd in vile arts, and foe to humankind." But, in addition to secret fraud, open violence is here charged against Israel. Hebrew A merchantכְּנַ֗עַן (kə·na·‘an) Noun - proper - masculine singular Strong's 3667: Canaan -- a son of Ham, also his descendants and their land West of the Jordan loves אָהֵֽב׃ (’ā·hêḇ) Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular Strong's 157: To have affection f to defraud לַעֲשֹׁ֥ק (la·‘ă·šōq) Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct Strong's 6231: To press upon, oppress, defraud, violate, overflow with dishonest מִרְמָ֖ה (mir·māh) Noun - feminine singular Strong's 4820: Deceit, treachery scales מֹאזְנֵ֥י (mō·zə·nê) Noun - mdc Strong's 3976: A pair of scales in his hands. בְּיָד֛וֹ (bə·yā·ḏōw) Preposition-b | Noun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine singular Strong's 3027: A hand Links Hosea 12:7 NIVHosea 12:7 NLT Hosea 12:7 ESV Hosea 12:7 NASB Hosea 12:7 KJV Hosea 12:7 BibleApps.com Hosea 12:7 Biblia Paralela Hosea 12:7 Chinese Bible Hosea 12:7 French Bible Hosea 12:7 Catholic Bible OT Prophets: Hosea 12:7 A merchant has dishonest scales in his (Ho Hs Hos.) |