In this verse the same charge is repeated but in somewhat more detail. It is again in the form of a question. The Revised Standard Version “Shall I acquit…?” does not suggest the answer, but Good News Translation with its How can I forgive…? makes it clearer that a negative answer is expected. The Lord cannot forgive this kind of wicked behavior, and some translators may need to recast this verse in the form of a negative statement, “I cannot forgive….”

The type of scales used were the kind still used in many areas of the world today, with two dishes hanging from a bar. Weights would be put on one of the dishes, and the thing to be weighed on the other dish. The easiest way to cheat when using scales was to use false weights. On the other hand, there may have been ways of changing the scales themselves so as to cheat the customer. No matter how it was done, the result was that the customer got less than he paid for. The Hebrew mentions “a bag of deceitful weights.” Probably the weights for the scales were kept in bags. If there are no appropriate terms for these scales and weights in the receptor language, then it is not necessary to try to give all the details of the ancient culture. A translator can simply give the main point of the accusation as Good News Translation has done. Some translators may have to express the main point in quite a different way, however, such as “If a merchant cheats his customers when he weighs the goods he is selling them, how can I forgive him?”

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. et al. A Handbook on Micah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1978, 1982, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .