“an honest balance.” Job makes an allusion to a merchant weighing something, as if someone could weigh him in a balance before the judgment seat of God, putting his faults on one side of the balance and his virtues on the other side. Job is confident that his virtues would weigh more than his faults and thus prove him to be innocent. Job feels like he has been treated unfairly, and thus asks for an “honest balance.” Unscrupulous merchants often kept stones of different weight in their bag only they could easily tell apart so that they bought a lot and sold a little and so could cheat in business (Lev. 19:35; Deut. 25:13-16). Job wants a fair measurement of his life.

[For more on trading using honest balances, see commentary on Proverbs 11:1.]