Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Micah 6:11 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 11. 11Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse asks whether the LORD can count pure wicked balances and a bag of deceitful weights.
Read It With
- Micah 6:9-16
Read Micah 6:11 with 6:9-16. This verse asks whether the LORD can count pure wicked balances and a bag of deceitful weights. The complete unit establishes this movement: The justice required in 6:8 is violated through deceptive measures, violent wealth, and lies; the resulting covenant-curse reversals make eating, saving, sowing, oil, and wine fail, while Omride policy becomes a warning rather than an ethnic stigma.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The paragraph defines 6:8 in ordinary economic and civic life and shows that exploitative prosperity is not evidence of covenant faithfulness. Within that movement, this verse asks whether the LORD can count pure wicked balances and a bag of deceitful weights.
Follow the Context
- The LORD's voice calls the city to recognize the rod and the one appointing it.
- Wicked stores and a short measure are exposed.
- False balances, deceitful weights, violent rich people, and lying inhabitants define the city.
- The LORD announces debilitating judgment because of sin.
- Eating, storing, sowing, oil, and wine efforts fail to yield their intended benefit.
- Omri and Ahab's patterns are kept, producing desolation and reproach.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“bag of deceitful weights”
In plain language: portable commercial standards manipulated for fraud
asks whether the LORD can count pure wicked balances and a bag of deceitful weights. Religious purity claims fail when the instruments of exchange are designed to deceive.
Why it matters: The wording carries interpretive or ethical risk that requires the complete unit and stated limits.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
The fraud charge does not authorize punishment without evidence, review, and due process.
What Remains True
Religious purity claims fail when the instruments of exchange are designed to deceive.
How It Can Shape Life
- Independently verify scales, algorithms, prices, and reporting systems.
Teach It Back
Explain how Micah 6:11 contributes to Micah 6:9-16. Show how the surrounding movement controls the verse, name the stated uncertainty, and identify what the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Micah 6:9-16 — The City Keeps False Measures and Harvests FutilitySources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The rhetorical subject is supplied differently in translations, but the rejection of deceptive standards is clear.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Micah 6:9-16, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Micah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, clause relationships, wordplays, names, and the base text behind translation discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Mic.xml, 6:9-16
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Micah with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, textual, literary, historical, and uncertainty notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Micah PDF, printed pp. 1749, translation and notes on 6:9-16
Open source ↗