Balance

King James Dictionary

BAL'ANCE, n. L.bilanx, bis, twice, and lanz, a dish, the double dish.

1. A pair of scales, for weighing commodities. It consists of a beam or lever suspended exactly in the middle, with a scale or basin hung to each extremity, of precisely equal weight.

The Roman balance, our steel-yard, consists of a lever or beam, movable on a center, and suspended near one of its extremities. Hence,

2. One of the simple powers in mechanics, used for determining the equality or difference of weight in heavy bodies,and consequently their masses or quantity of matter. 3. Figuratively, an impartial state of the mind, in deliberating or a just estimate of the reasons and arguments on

both sides of a question, which gives to each its due weight, or

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force and importance.

4. As balance signifies equal weight, or equality, it is by custom used for the weight or sum necessary to make two unequal weights or sums equal that which is necessary to bring them to a balance or equipoise. Hence, in accounts, balance is the difference of two sums as upon an adjustment of accounts, a balance was found against A, in favor of B. Hence, to pay a balance, is to pay the difference and make the two accounts equal. 5. Balance of trade is an equal exportation of domestic productions, and importation of foreign. But, usually, the term is applied to the difference between the amount or value of the commodities exported and imported. Hence the common expression, the balance of trade is against or in favor of a country. 6. Equipoise, or an equal state of power between nations as the "balance of power." 7. Equipoise, or an equal state of the passions.

The balance of the mind.

8. That which renders weight or authority equal.

The only balance attempted against the ancient kings, was a body of nobles.

9. The part of a clock or watch which regulates the beats. 10. In astronomy, a sign in the zodiac, called in Latin Libra, which the sun enters at the equinox in September.

The hydrostatic balance is an instrument to determine the specific gravity of fluid and solid bodies.

The assay balance is one which is used in docimastic operations, to determine the weight of minute bodies.

BAL'ANCE, To adjust the weights in the scales of a balance so as to bring them to an equipoise. Hence,

2. To weigh reasons to compare, by estimating the relative force, importance, or value of different things as, to balance good and evil. 3. To regulate different powers, so as to keep them in a state of just proportion as, to balance Europe, or the powers of Europe. 4. To counterpoise to make of equal weight or force to make equipollent as, one species of attraction balances another.

One expression in the letter check and balance another.

5. To settle and adjust, as an account to find the difference of two accounts, and to pay the balance, or difference, and make them equal. 6. In seamanship, to contract a sail, by rolling up a small part of it at one corner.

BAL'ANCE, To have on each side equal weight to be on a poise.

2. To hesitate to fluctuate between motives which appear of equal force, as a balance plays when poised by equal weights.

Between right and wrong, never balance a moment.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (n.) To support on a narrow base, so as to keep from falling; as, to balance a plate on the end of a cane; to balance one's self on a tight rope.

(2): (n.) To compare in relative force, importance, value, etc.; to estimate.

(3): (n.) To settle and adjust, as an account; to make two accounts equal by paying the difference between them.

(4): (n.) To equal in number, weight, force, or proportion; to counterpoise, counterbalance, counteract, or neutralize.

(5): (n.) To bring to an equipoise, as the scales of a balance by adjusting the weights; to weigh in a balance.

(6): (n.) A movement in dancing. See Balance, v. i., S.

(7): (n.) To move toward, and then back from, reciprocally; as, to balance partners.

(8): (n.) An apparatus for weighing.

(9): (n.) Act of weighing mentally; comparison; estimate.

(10): (n.) Equipoise between the weights in opposite scales.

(11): (n.) The state of being in equipoise; equilibrium; even adjustment; steadiness.

(12): (n.) An equality between the sums total of the two sides of an account; as, to bring one's accounts to a balance; - also, the excess on either side; as, the balance of an account.

(13): (n.) A balance wheel, as of a watch, or clock. See Balance wheel (in the Vocabulary).

(14): (n.) The constellation Libra.

(15): (n.) The seventh sign in the Zodiac, called Libra, which the sun enters at the equinox in September.

(16): (v. i.) To have equal weight on each side; to be in equipoise; as, the scales balance.

(17): (n.) To contract, as a sail, into a narrower compass; as, to balance the boom mainsail.

(18): (v. i.) To move toward a person or couple, and then back.

(19): (v. i.) To fluctuate between motives which appear of equal force; to waver; to hesitate.

(20): (n.) To arrange accounts in such a way that the sum total of the debits is equal to the sum total of the credits; as, to balance a set of books.

(21): (n.) To make the sums of the debits and credits of an account equal; - said of an item; as, this payment, or credit, balances the account.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

BALANCE . The Hebrew balances probably differed but little from those in use in Egypt as described by Wilkinson (Anc. Egyp . [1878], II. 246 f.). The main parts were the beam with its support, and the scales which were hung by cords from the ends of the equal arms of the beam. The ‘pair of scales’ is used in OT by a figure for the balance as a whole; only once is the beam so used ( Isaiah 46:6 ). The weights were originally of stone and are always so termed. The moral necessity of a just balance and true weights and the iniquity of false ones are frequently emphasized by the prophets, moral teachers, and legislators of Israel; see Amos 8:5 , Micah 6:11 , Proverbs 11:1; Proverbs 16:11 (‘a just balance and scales are the Lord’s’) Proverbs 20:23 , Leviticus 19:36 , Deuteronomy 25:13 ff.

A. R. S. Kennedy.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Ζυγός (Strong'S #2218 — Noun Masculine — zugos — dzoo-gos' )

"a yoke," also has the meaning of "a pair of scales," Revelation 6:5 . So the Sept. of Leviticus 19:36; Isaiah 40:12 . See Yoke.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

The emblem of justice (Job 31:6; Psalms 62:9; Proverbs 11:1) the test of truth and honesty. The emblem of scarcity, food being weighed out Revelation 6:5). Μozenaim , "double scales" (Genesis 23:16). Qaneh , "the beam of a balance" (Isaiah 46:6). Ρeles , "scales" (Isaiah 40:12): literally, "the beam", or else the aperture in which the tongue or beam moves.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Leviticus 19:36 Isaiah 46:6 Kanch' Ezekiel 40:3,542:16-18 Mozena'yim Daniel 5:27Job 31:6Psalm 62:9Proverbs 11:1Revelation 6:5

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

as a Christian symbol. In this relation it appears sometimes upon Christian tombs. A sepulchral stone from the Cemetery of St. Cyriac displays this instrument in conjunction with a crown; it may also be seen upon a marble slab taken from a cemetery of the Via Latina, accompanied by a house, a fish, by a doubtful object which has been taken wrongly for a candelabrum, and by a mummy set up in a niche. A monument of the same nature represents a balance with a weight. Another example is found in the Church of St. Cecilia at Rome.

Some antiquaries have supposed that the balance is symbolical of judgment or justice. It is true that it is found, doubtless with this signification, on coins of Gordian, Diocletian, and other emperors of pagan Rome. The mediaeval artists, again, have frequently made use of this idea; for instance, in the tympanum of the great doorway of Notre Dame in Paris, and in that of the cathedral of Autun, where it may be considered as a translation in sculpture of the words of the Apocalypse Revelation 22:12. But in the first two instances which we have mentioned — almost the only examples transmnitted to us by Christian antiquity properly so called — it is important to observe that mention is made of the contract entered into between. the purchasers of the tombs and the fossores ("grave-diggers") Montanus and Calevius. It is therefore more natural to suppose that the balance symbolizes purchase and sale.

Sometimes upon tombs the balance is simply indicative of a trade; as, for example, on the slab of a Roman money-changer found in the Cemetery of St. Priscilla. Bronze balances were found in a Frankish sepulchre of the Merovingian period, where in all probability they indicated the tomb of a monetary officer, or fiscal agent or accountant of some kind. This is rendered almost certain by the fact that a balance in the Faussett collection was found in the same tomb with a "touch-stone" for the trial of metals. Another was found in an ancient tomb in Kent.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

bal´ans The English word "balance" is from the Latin bilanx = "having two scales" ( bi = "two" and lanx = "plate," or "scale"). It is used to render three Hebrew words: (1) מאזנים , mō'znayim (Leviticus 19:36; Job 6:2; Psalm 62:9; Proverbs 11:1; Isaiah 40:12 , Isaiah 40:15; Jeremiah 32:10 , etc.); (2) קנה , ḳāneh (Isaiah 46:6 ), and (3) פלס , peleṣ (Proverbs 16:11 ). It is found in the sing., e.g. "a just balance " (Proverbs 16:11 ); "a pair of balances " (Revelation 6:5 , etc.), as well as in the plur., e.g. "just balances " (Leviticus 19:36 ), "weighed in the balances " (Daniel 5:27 , etc.).

1. Balances Among the Ancient Hebrews; the Parts, Etc

(1) The "balances" of the ancient Hebrews differed little, if at all, from those used by the Egyptians (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt (1878), II, 246 f). They consisted, probably, of a horizontal bar, either pivoted on a perpendicular rod (see Erman, Aegypten , I, 615 for similar Egyptian balances), or suspended from a cord and held in the hand, the more primitive form. At the ends of the bar were pans, or hooks, from which the things to be weighed were suspended, sometimes in bags.

A good description of the more developed and final form is this: A beam with its fulcrum in the middle and its arms precisely equal. From the ends of the arms were suspended two scales, the one to receive the object to be weighed, the other the counterpoise, or weight.

(2) The weights were of stone at first and are so named in Deuteronomy 25:13 King James Version, margin. A pair of scales (the King James Version "a pair of balances") is used in Revelation 6:5 by a figure of speech for the balance as a whole; only once is the beam so used, in Isaiah 46:6 , literally, "weigh silver in the beam." Abraham, we are told (Genesis 23:16 ), "weighed the silver."

2. Probably of Babylonian Origin

The basis and fountain-head of all systems of weights and measurements is to be traced, it is now thought, to Babylonia; but the primitive instruments and systems were subject to many modifications as they entered other regions and passed into the derivative systems. The Roman "balance" is the same as our steelyard (vulgarly called "stillyards"). Compare the Chinese, Danish, etc.

3. The System of Weighing Liable to Fraud

Though the "balances" in ancient times were rudely constructed, the weighing could be done quite accurately, as may be seen in the use of equally primitive balances in the East today. But the system was liable to fraud. A "false balance" might be literally one so constructed that the arms were of unequal length, when the longer arm would be intended, of course, for the article to be weighed. The system was liable, however, to various other subtle abuses then as now; hence the importance in God's sight of "true weights" and a "just balance" is enforced again and again (see Leviticus 19:36; Proverbs 11:1; Proverbs 16:11; Proverbs 20:23; Amos 8:5; Micah 6:11 , etc.).

4. "Wicked Balances" Condemned

"A false balance is an abomination to Yahweh" (Proverbs 11:1; compare Proverbs 20:23 ), and "a just balance and scales are Yahweh's" (Proverbs 16:11 ). Hos (Hosea 12:7 ) condemns "the balances of deceit" in the hand of the wicked; Am (Isaiah 8:5 the King James Version) cries out upon "falsifying the balances by deceit," and Mic ( Isaiah 6:11 ) denounces "wicked balances." Indeed, the righteousness of a just balance and true weights, and the iniquity of false ones are everywhere emphasized by the lawmakers, prophets and moral teachers of Israel, and the preacher or teacher who would expose and denounce such things in God's name today need be at no loss for texts and precedents. See Weights And Measures .

Literature

Wilkinson, Ancient Egypt  ; Erman, Egypt  ; Lepsius, Denkmaler  ; and articles on "Balance." etc., in Smith, DB , EB , Jewish Encyclopedia , HDB , etc.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Balance [WEIGHTS AND MEASURES]