Then ¹  when the Lamb opened the third seal I heard the third living creature saying, “Come!” So ²  I looked, ³  and here came ⁴  a black horse! The ⁵  one who rode it ⁶  had a balance scale ⁷  in his hand.

The wise person ¹  can scale ²  the city of the mighty and bring down the stronghold ³  in which they trust. ⁴ 

You say, “When will the new moon festival ¹  be over, ²  so we can sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, ³  so we can open up the grain bins? ⁴  We’re eager ⁵  to sell less for a higher price, ⁶  and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales! ⁷ 

Those who empty out gold from a purse and weigh out silver on the scale ¹  hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god. They then bow down and worship it.

“As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor. ¹  Shave off some of the hair from your head and your beard. ²  Then take scales and divide up the hair you cut off.

You must have honest balances, ¹  honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. ²  I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt.

Men are nothing but a mere breath; human beings are unreliable. ¹  When they are weighed in the scales, all of them together are lighter than air. ² 

They had breastplates ¹  like iron breastplates, and the sound of their wings was like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots charging into battle.

You must not have in your bag different stone weights, ¹  a heavy and a light one. ² 

Its underparts ¹  are the sharp points of potsherds, it leaves its mark in the mud like a threshing sledge. ² 

Examine me, O Lord, and test me! Evaluate my inner thoughts and motives! ¹ 

For the ways of a person ¹  are in front of the Lord’s eyes, and the Lord ²  weighs ³  all that person’s ⁴  paths.

All a person’s ways ¹  seem right ²  in his own opinion, ³  but the Lord evaluates ⁴  the motives. ⁵ 

Be careful with them and protect them, until you weigh them out before the leading priests and the Levites and the family leaders of Israel in Jerusalem, ¹  in the storerooms of the temple of the Lord.”

I will leave you in the wilderness, you and all the fish of your waterways; you will fall in the open field and will not be gathered up or collected. ¹  I have given you as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the skies.