Weights And Measures

Non habebis in sacculo diversa pondera, majus et minus; nec erit in domo tua modius major et minor. Pondus habebus justum, et verum, et modius aequlis erit tibi, et verus, ut multo vivas tempore super terram. Hoc et idem legislator etiam in Levitico interdicit, Salomone quoque parem super hac sententiam proferente: Pondus magnum, et pusillum, et mensurae duplices, immunda sunt utraque ante Dominum, et qui facit ea, in adinventionibus suis compedietur. Proinde non solum illo corporali, sed etiam spirituali modo studendum est nobis, ut nec diversa pondera in cordibus nostris, nec in domo conscientiae nostrae mensuras duplices habeamus, id est, ne ipsi ea quae districtionis regulam molliunt remissiore indulgentia praesumentes, eos quibus verbum Dei praedicamus, districtioribus praeceptis et gravioribus quam ipsi perferre possumus obruamus ponderibus. Quod eum facimus, quid nisi diverso pondere atque mensura praeceptorum Domini mercedem frugemque vel appendimus, vel metimur? Si enim aliter ea nobis, aliter fratribus nostris dispensemus, recte increpamur a Domino, eo quod stateras diversas aut mensuras duplices habeamus, secundum illam sententiam Salominis qua dicitur: Abominatio est Domino pondus duplex, et statera dolosa non est bonum in conspectu ejus. Sanctus Isidorus Hispalensis,Mysticorum Expositiones Sacramentorum Seu Quaestiones In Vetus Testamentum, In Deuteronomium Caput XII Source: Migne PL 83.364a-c

You shall not have in your bag two weights, greater and lesser, nor shall there be in your house a measure greater and less. You shall have a fair weight, and true, and your measure shall be equitable and true, that you shall live long on the earth. 1 This also the legislator in Leviticus prohibits. 2 Solomon also offers a sentence of fairness: 'The great weight and the little one, deceitful measures, are both unclean before the Lord, and also the one who uses them,' 3 for he will be caught in his own contrivances. And this should not only be grasped by us in a corporeal manner but also spiritually, so that we do not have diverse weights in our hearts, nor in our consciences duplicitous measures, that is, lest taking up for ourselves those things that with gentle indulgence soften a hard rule, those to whom we preach the word of God we overwhelm with the weight of hard and heavy precepts, which we are not able to bear. And why do we do this, unless with a different weight and measure we add to or estimate the rewards and the fruit of the commandments of the Lord? If we deal with ourselves one way and our brothers in another way, we are justly denounced by the Lord, having different weights and deceitful measures, according to which Solomon says, 'A deceitful weight is an abomination to the Lord and the unfair balance is not good in His sight.' 2 Saint Isidore of Seville, Expositions of Sacred Mysteries or Questions on the Old Testament, On Deuteronomy, Chap 12 1 Deut 25.13-15 2 Levit 19.35-36 3 Prov 20.10 4 Prov 20. 23