Leviticus 19:36, commentary and pictures

Just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just hin are commanded, forbidding all unrighteousness in judgment, in length, in weight and in measure, so that every weighing and measuring in trade is accurate and fair with no cheating by false or differing measures. The command rests on the authority of the speaker as the LORD God who brought Israel out of the land of Egypt, and therefore requires observance and doing of all His statutes and judgments governing how people treat one another. Fair dealing is presented as part of keeping those statutes, with honest measures and weights grounded in the Lord's deliverance of Israel from Egypt.

The chapter gives a lesson for future generations, with Christ Himself speaking the same high standard found in His New Testament teachings. Just dealing belongs to keeping His commandments for good, fearing God, loving Him with all heart and soul, loving the neighbor as self, and being holy as God is holy.

The verse means strict, unimpeachable honesty in every business transaction and in making money, especially in buying and selling real estate, with no stealing, false dealing, lying to one another, defrauding a neighbor, taking advantage of occasions and circumstances, exaggerating benefits, hiding defects to make a sale, or using differing weights to deceive for gain. In real estate this forbids setting forth the benefits of property in a strong light, praising it extravagantly, keeping back unfavorable facts, or asserting that it will rise or double in value to deceive the purchaser. That false dealing marks nearly all real estate buying and selling and must be cut loose from before one can be considered a healthy branch of the church.

Business must be done on principles of justice and equity without partiality, hypocrisy, fraud or oppression, especially in relieving the poor brother, the stranger and sojourner, taking no usury or increase, not ruling with rigor, and paying what is due. Oppression of the poor is actual robbery, an abhorred practice heaven marks that God will in no case tolerate and condemns whenever manifested by whoever and in whatever business, even when not punishable by human courts except in extreme cases. Wherever schemes withhold money from those to whom it is due or deprive any person of right, God's disapproval rests, because He regards not persons nor takes rewards but executes judgment for the fatherless and widow and loves the stranger.

Just dealing belongs to God's instruction to remember that His gifts are to be shared, leaving the gleanings of harvest-field, orchard and vineyard as the Lord's portion to relieve the necessities of the poor and the stranger, with fairness in trade and no oppression of brethren in any way. The requirement of just weights and honest measure applies in every line of work and every business transaction, forbidding all unfair dealing, and means doing to others as one would be done by and carrying out the principles of Christ. Those professing present truth must still carry out what was given through Moses to Israel, as representatives of truth and righteousness and as sons and daughters of God living the Christ-life.