Something like fish scales appears in most translations as “something like scales.” The Good News Translation has added the qualifier fish in order to indicate to the reader the kind of scales that are meant, that is, fish scales as opposed to weight scales.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .