Scales:
skalz
(1) qasqeseth "fish-scales";
(2) meghinnah, maghen, "scales of the crocodile";
(3) lepis, with verb lepizo "scale away" (Tobit 3:17; 11:13)):
(1) The first Hebrew word qasqeseth means the imbricated scales of fish, which together with the dorsal fin were a distinguishing mark of all fish allowed as food to the Israelite (Le 11:9 ff; De 14:9 f). In the figurative sense the word is used of a coat of mail (1Sa 17:5,38).
(2) Meghinnah from maghen, literally, "a buckler" or "small shield" (2Ch 23:9; Jer 46:3), is used in the description of the crocodile (see LEVIATHAN) for the horny scales or scutes imbedded in the skin, not imbricated upon it (Job 41:15 (Hebrew verse 7)).
(3) The Greek lepis, which in classical language has a much wider range of meaning than the above Hebrew words ("rind," "husk," "shell," "fish-scale," "scale of snake," "flake of metal and of snow," etc.), is found in the New Testament description of Paul's recovery from temporary blindness, "And straightway there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received his sight" (Ac 9:18).
There is nothing in the words of the sacred text which compels us to think of literal scales. (In Tobit, however, a literal flaking-off of foreign substance is meant.) We have here rather a description of the sensation which terminated the three days' period of blindness which the apostle suffered after his meeting with the risen Lord on the road to Damascus. The apostle himself does not use this expression in his own graphic description of the same experience: "In that very hour I looked upon him" (Ac 22:13). The phrase has, however, come into English, for we speak of "scales falling from one's eyes" when we mean a sudden illumination or remembrance or a dissipation of harassing doubt.
In Isa 40:12; the Revised Version (British and American) Pr 16:11 for peles, in the sense of "instrument for weighing."
Written by H. L. E. Luering
Scales: Fell from Paul's Eyes
Act 9:18
Scales: For Measure
See BALANCES
Balance:
bal'-ans The English word "balance" is from the Latin bilanx =" having two scales" (bi =" two" and lanx =" plate," or "scale"). It is used to render three Hebrew words:
(1) mo'znayim (Le 19:36; Job 6:2; Ps 62:9; Pr 11:1; Isa 40:12,15; Jer 32:10, etc.);
(2) qaneh (Isa 46:6), and
(3) pelec (Pr 16:11).
It is found in the sing., e.g. "a just balance" (Pr 16:11); "a pair of balances" (Re 6:5, etc.), as well as in the plur., e.g. "just balances" (Le 19:36), "weighed in the balances" (Da 5:27, etc.).
1. Balances among the Ancient Hebrews; the Parts, etc.:
(1) The "balances" of the ancient Hebrews differed little, if at all, from those used by the Egyptians (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt (1878), II, 246 f). They consisted, probably, of a horizontal bar, either pivoted on a perpendicular rod (see Erman, Aegypten, I, 615 for similar Egyptian balances), or suspended from a cord and held in the hand, the more primitive form. At the ends of the bar were pans, or hooks, from which the things to be weighed were suspended, sometimes in bags.
A good description of the more developed and final form is this: A beam with its fulcrum in the middle and its arms precisely equal. From the ends of the arms were suspended two scales, the one to receive the object to be weighed, the other the counterpoise, or weight.
(2) The weights were of stone at first and are so named in De 25:13 King James Version, margin. A pair of scales (the King James Version "a pair of balances") is used in Re 6:5 by a figure of speech for the balance as a whole; only once is the beam so used, in Isa 46:6, literally, "weigh silver in the beam." Abraham, we are told (Ge 23:16), "weighed the silver."
2. Probably of Babylonian Origin:
The basis and fountain-head of all systems of weights and measurements is to be traced, it is now thought, to Babylonia; but the primitive instruments and systems were subject to many modifications as they entered other regions and passed into the derivative systems. The Roman "balance" is the same as our steelyard (vulgarly called "stillyards"). Compare the Chinese, Danish, etc.
3. The System of Weighing Liable to Fraud:
Though the "balances" in ancient times were rudely constructed, the weighing could be done quite accurately, as may be seen in the use of equally primitive balances in the East today. But the system was liable to fraud. A "false balance" might be literally one so constructed that the arms were of unequal length, when the longer arm would be intended, of course, for the article to be weighed. The system was liable, however, to various other subtle abuses then as now; hence the importance in God's sight of "true weights" and a "just balance" is enforced again and again (see Le 19:36; Pr 11:1; 16:11; 20:23; Am 8:5; Mic 6:11, etc.).
4. "Wicked Balances" Condemned:
"A false balance is an abomination to Yahweh" (Pr 11:1; compare Pr 20:23), and "a just balance and scales are Yahweh's" (Pr 16:11). Ho 12:7 condemns "the balances of deceit" in the hand of the wicked; Am 8:5 (the King James Version) cries out upon "falsifying the balances by deceit," and Mic 6:11 denounces "wicked balances." Indeed, the righteousness of a just balance and true weights, and the iniquity of false ones are everywhere emphasized by the lawmakers, prophets and moral teachers of Israel, and the preacher or teacher who would expose and denounce such things in God's name today need be at no loss for texts and precedents.
See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
LITERATURE.
Wilkinson, Ancient Egypt; Erman, Egypt; Lepsius, Denkmaler; and articles on "Balance." etc., in Smith, DB, EB, Jewish Encyclopedia, HDB, etc.
Written by George B. Eager
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