Just…: this adjective is repeated four times in this verse, but it would be unnatural to do so in many languages. Good News Translation, translating it “honest,” reduces it to three. In other languages once will be sufficient, but if the repetition does not violate the norms of the language, it serves to reinforce the idea.

Balances … weights: a balance is a device used by the ancient Jews to measure the weight of an object by balancing it against another object or set of objects having a known weight. It was possible to cheat a person either by tampering with the device itself or by falsifying the weights used (see Pro 11.1 and 16.11). Where such a system is unknown, the translation will have to be adapted to the system used in the receptor-language culture to measure weight.

Ephah … hin: the ephah (see 5.11) was a measure of capacity used for grain, and the hin (found also in 23.13) measured liquids. The terms are used here as general references to measurements and not for precise amounts. No useful purpose is served by transliterating these terms. The more general term “measures” is quite adequate in this context. Others may want to use a verbal expression like “when you measure grain or liquid.”

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .